The Sum of All Fears

I still do, but much less so now, although that isn’t an excuse, think very long about what I wear in public. If I am blind to the world’s scrutiny, I dress for comfort. If I am blind to my own welfare, I dress for style, which is almost always slightly painful. When I was younger, I almost always chose the pain of style, as opposed to the mental pain that I would inflict upon myself if I perceived that others may think less of me if I weren’t well dressed and mannered. The process of guessing what others thought of me was, and is, inherently flawed, almost always erring towards the more unfavorable regard. But then again, I had nothing else going for me, or so I thought. Nowadays, I still believe that I have nothing else going for me, but I have neither the energy, time nor disposition to do anything about it. And so, on any given day, I will find myself in public, more or less dressed as if I were to consider myself invisible.

During an interview, Craig Ferguson, the late night talk show host, pointed to his guest’s, the comedian Russell Brand’s, pants zipper. The zipper was unique in that instead of running vertically, it ran diagonally across the crotch of his pants. When asked why, Russell Brand said, “It’s on an angle like that to draw attention to itself.”