The Dark Side

I know many of you think that this trad thing is all sweetness and light, but I tell you there are many pitfalls. I suppose you think I will be discussing the evils of boozing or womanizing or snobbishness or condescension. But the treatment of those must wait for another day. Today I will be discussing the twin evils of thrifting and ebaying.

I know some of my many readers will recoil and say "longwing, please not a lecture on the ickyness of wearing used clothing." And I assure you that is not what this is about. In fact, just last weekend I swiped a nice tie from my brother-in-law. No, I am going to attempt to keep this on a higher plane.

The problem with thrifting and ebaying is that they encourage the wrong kind of shopping. Let's assume that you have already become one with your body. When your body needs protein, do you give it a pop tart? Well, you must learn to become one with your wardrobe as well. Your wardrobe is a not quite living thing that has it's own needs. Once you have become one with your wardrobe you can begin to sense what it is that is needed, is lacking.

Thrifting and ebaying encourages the wrong way of shopping. It causes you to shop like my wife. My wife will go into Anthropology thinking she wants a pair of jeans and come out with all sorts of stuff and no jeans. I think the jeans were just an excuse. See, when we see something we like we naturally want to buy it. And when thrifting, why not? It hardly costs anything. It's a great deal. Who cares that you had no idea that you wanted this thing 5 minutes ago? Who cares that half the rooms in your house are already filled with clothes?

Shopping is not about buying what you want. It is about providing for that not quite living thing called your wardrobe. When you are one with your wardrobe, you shop with the mind of a zen master. Diamond mind is what it's called, I think.

Anyway, the good news is that when you shop properly you really don't spend any more money. When you are shopping with diamond mind you buy less and have a higher level of satisfaction with your purchases. And you avoid having to explain to your new girlfriend why your house is filled with stinky old clothes.