Would you rather . . . ?
Reading Denise’s post, I was reminded of a small incident a few years ago in a supermarket. It was quiet, the spacious aisles allowing easy access to shelves and their contents. Do shelves have ‘contents’, or do they simply ‘display items’? ‘Whatever’, as the young used to say.
Anyway, I noticed another shopper, well dressed, neatly turned out, quite unlike me in my sloppy attire. Even if I attempt to present a decorous, though never decorative, image, I fail miserably and this I know when I catch sight of a scarecrow creature in a pane of glass and realise, with horror, that it’s me.
As I gazed surreptitiously at my beautifully styled fellow shopper, I suddenly noticed a hair clip in her hair. It wasn’t a decorative thing, an intentional addition, a pretty ornament, but a hair grip, intended to flatten wayward locks or entice hair to remain where required and then removed. It was not meant to be there.
I was in a quandary. Should I quietly alert my peer to the unintended accessory? Would she prefer not to know? How would she react? Tentatively, I said, ‘Excuse me,’ and she turned to look at me. ‘Did you realise you have a hair clip in your hair?’
Startled, her hand flew to her hair to remove it and she thanked me most profusely. I was relieved that she wasn’t embarrassed and glad I had told her. Certainly, I would prefer to have such an anomaly pointed out to me, though, to be honest, it would be quite difficult to settle on just one – there are so many inconsistencies.
I remember seeing one of my daughter’s teachers out shopping one day. She was wearing casual, comfortable clothes, which, if not actually shabby, had definitely seen better days. Round her neck hung the most beautiful jewelled pendant. It was clearly valuable and completely out of keeping with the rest of her outfit but I imagine it had sentimental value and gave her great pleasure to wear.
When it comes down to it, at the end of the day, when all’s said and done, in the long run, and other inconsequential platitudes, so long as you’re comfortable in your own skin and choice of clothes, no-one else’s opinion matters.
