3 jan 2012

When you decide to make a change, the amount of "you" that you change is generally determined not by making a list of things you wish to change, but rather by an accounting of what you wish to keep. You take inventory and you see what's good and what's become mealy-mush, and you keep the good and discard the mealy-mush.

You cannot determine up front and beforehand those things you actually wish to change, per se, as much as you can determine what you wish to retain. After all, it's not as though you go into the change knowing how you will come out the other side of it, so you're generally not going to purposefully throw over that which is favorable.

Say that you like the brown sweater and it fits well and keeps you warm, but the yellow one you admire less, then you might pitch the yellow one and keep the brown. No longer having the yellow would change your wardrobe, but not by much since you probably weren't wearing it much anyway.

You could replace the yellow with another yellow. Discard the lemony cable knit and acquire a buttery cardigan... Will anyone except you even notice this so-small change? "She has a yellow sweater." is all that anyone knows. This change is less than the first.

You could take a leap and get rid of both the yellow AND the brown. Discard the unliked and the liked, the new and old, the poorly fitting and the well-suited. Then, you can wear the navy sweater and the gray one. Rebellion!

Seems like a change going in, but it's not so much a change after all. You've changed but the surface and not the depths, the cover and not the content. You've changed the flavour, but it is still ice cream.

Stop wearing sweaters altogether and switch to hoodies, or blazers, or plaid flannel shirts. Stop eating ice cream and have cake instead.

It is easy to throw off that which fits poorly and keep that which fits well. It's difficult to keep what fits poorly and throw off the well-fitting. But the real challenge is to chuck the whole fccking lot of it.