If you meet me in a business context, you’re probably going to see a white cotton shirt and a red tie very much like this.
I think I still have one blue dress shirt somewhere, but the vast majority of the shirts I own are white. (I order mine from Nordstrom. When I can afford it one day, I’ll go back to having them custom-tailored.) I have about 15 ties and they are all some form of red. In a normal setting, I’ll be wearing black pants made of a natural material, probably wool, and very traditional Allen Edmonds dress shoes.
Why? Did I spontaneously decide as a child that I have a thing for white shirts? Do I have a fetish for red pieces of silk tied around my neck in a symmetrical knot? Why would I do this?
The people who meet me might not consciously notice — and they might not even like to dress this way themselves — but they unconsciously know what it means. It means, “I’m a professional and you can trust me.”
I accept others’ amateur media, but I expect myself to be a pro
If you live by your principles, others won’t control your actions
How could we take responsibility but avoid self-destructive shame?
We’re neither friends nor enemies, just strangers who share the past
‘This path leads to somewhere I think I can finally say, I’m home’
When love finally dies, it’s like a fever breaks and the pain is gone