Here is a problem that I have on a regular basis that some of you may be able to identify with. I often dress for the weather of the previous day. I am a day late and sweater short! This is bad planning. I could look up the weather report for the day on my iPhone, or I could even (perish the thought!) look out the window and/or open the door to actually experience the current weather before making my clothing decisions for the day, but I never do. I wake up in the morning, stumble around for a while in a fog, take a shower, and the dress myself for whatever the last weather was that I can remember.
Was it hot yesterday? Then I am putting on shorts and a t-shirt. Yes, I see now that it is snowing out and I should have worn at least a jacket, but dammit, it was not snowing yesterday! So I suffer through a snowy day, cold, wet, and sad. But never fear! I have learned my lesson! The following day I will put on my long underwear, a long-sleeved shirt, a sweater, and a heavy coat, and I will pull my heavy wool socks onto my feet before I plunge them into my winter boots. I will be prepared! Of course it may suddenly be 70 degrees out by this time.
Why I never learn is beyond me. But unless the weather of the day is very similar to the weather of the previous day, I will probably be uncomfortable. Currently I am on a trip with some of my church people in Kansas, and each one of us was assigned a task. My friend Flawe was given the job of predicting the weather. She told us before we left that it would be sunny at 75 every day of the trip, and that we had better not pack any jackets or umbrellas. When we arrived here in the sunflower state it was 50 degrees.
In fact, as we started our conference it was not only cold, but it was rainy. And I was in my short-sleeved shirt sitting out under a tent trying to eat lunch and wishing I had worn my long-sleeved shirt! But Flawe double checked the weather again and assured us that this was a fluke, and that the next day would be warm, as promised. And I believed her. I also checked my own weather app the next morning when I woke up and saw that it was indeed going to be sunny and in the 80’s that day. So I showered with the knowledge that this day would be a hot one. And yet STILL! Still, I instinctively grabbed my long-sleeved shirt and a sweater, my body refusing any possible weather knowledge of the future as it trembled in remembrance of past shivers.
It was all I could do to force myself to put down the heavy clothes and take up the short-sleeved shirt, but I managed to do it. It was a struggle, but I did it. Thank goodness I did. It was hot out! If I had put on all of that other stuff I would have been miserable! And I knew this ahead of time! And yet my instinct was to wear too many things, simply because it had been cold the day before. Crazy.
I don’t know if I can ever fully solve this problem, or if I will just have to be very diligent about forcing myself to wear appropriate clothing, but I see this as an ongoing and lifelong struggle for me. But it’s not just me, is it? Please tell me that I am not the only one! Please tell me that, at least sometimes, you too are a slave to reactionary fashion! Please…?