Today I realized that I wrote in the Sundressed blog entry that I would talk about how reading this book changed everything in my Generation X 50s life.
The fashion we dress in and how we fashion ourselves and our lives and the makeup we wear and how we make up our minds to live the way we choose–all of this I’ve been thinking about.
It started with the changes I decided to make aligned with buying natural fabrics and branched out to ideas I had after reading other books too.
What I’ve started to do is look to see the fabric content of the clothes I’m buying. Preferring to buy 100 percent cotton blouses. Looking to buy a 100 percent wool coat to replace the houndstooth winter coat I’ve had for 11 years.
Alas, I lift weights so the training pants I buy and wear are synthetic material. This is one concession that is not eco-friendly.
Recently I checked a book out of the library titled Wabi-Sabi Home. The other guide I liked better that I checked out was Wabi-Sabi Welcome.
In only one regard I’m a fan of the Japanese Wabi-Sabi ethic: it’s predicated on valuing and flaunting the imperfect. The cracks in objects that are soldered together in gold to highlight the cracks.
In this regard it pays to talk about having a Wabi-Sabi wardrobe. Not thinking that as a woman we have to dress flawlessly with a full face of makeup.
One year ago I decided that in a roomful of women with obvious makeup seen covering their faces I’m going to stick with my eyeliner and lipstick.
As I’ve gotten older (and not gotten glowing performance reviews even though I’m a hard worker) I no longer care what people think of me and what I say or write or how I look or what I do.
I was born in 1965–the first year of Generation X. This accounts for why I think differently and see things differently from Baby Boomers.
My sincere hope is that I can change one reader’s life for the better at a time by writing what I do in blog entries..
My aim in talking about living my life Left of the Dial and being a Girl on the Left is that a devotion to doing your own thing is rooted in this firm belief I have:
There is no one–or any–“right” way to live act think feel dress and love.
Having empathy and being open-minded is the secret sauce in relationships. Too often stigma–in whatever form it appears–is baked into how a person interacts with you.
The hating and judging that goes on has been going on for too long.
This is why I chose to go left when everyone else goes “right.”
There is nothing right about enacting a law that makes ESG investing illegal. There is nothing right about fracking. Nor anything right and justified in building oil pipelines over sacred tribal lands.
My hope is that by keeping this blog I can give readers the courage to act true to yourself, think for yourself, and dress however you like.
Decide for yourself how you want to live. There’s nothing wrong with any of us. Even though the media darlings that spout divisive rhetoric would have us feel guilty and ashamed for daring to exist.
My goal has always been that this blog would be a judgment-free zone.
I’ll turn 58 in the spring. I’m too old to spend the rest of what could be a long life caring what people think.
I’ll end here by saying that everyone’s doing the best we can with what we were given.
We should be proud of who we are and what we stand for.
Don’t let anyone who hasn’t met you and broken bread with you dare impose their view of who you are in what they write.
Step away from those books and blogs and platforms.
Beyonce was quoted in a fashion magazine years ago that social media is truly democratic because it allows everyone to have a say.
In a coming blog entry–though I can’t guarantee that it will be the next one–I will talk about how we can all be Advocates for each other and for the planet.
We could all use more love and less critical bashing of who we are and what we stand for.
So I say: if you’re going to wear polyester–by all means do so.
I couldn’t resist the silver-coated pants that called out to me either.
Left of the Dial 