Elegy on the demise of a good suit

I haven’t stepped out of my office today apart from when I was summoned by a superior to assign some work to me, the simple reason being that I feel so ashamed of the suit I am wearing! I haven’t worn it in a while and decided for some reason to remedy that situation today; no sooner had I reached the main road however than I regretted that decision but I just didn’t feel inclined to go back and change. I’m now writing about it.

Here is a little background information for clarity sake; I like this suit, I really do. It is a decent suit made by one of the popular Nigerian designers (I don’t do free endorsements!) which I wore for my bestie’s wedding; I was the best man and we looked smart (even if I do say so myself). Surely you can understand why I like it. Unfortunately and as you rightly suspected, there is a”but”. The suit, naturally, is not exactly new any longer; a girl born as a result of the marriage is now of school going age plus I have had it dry-cleaned a few times over the years. What it now is therefore, is a faded grey, musty, one size too small getup and yet it took me less than 5 minutes of self-deliberation to decide it was a good idea to wear it! I honestly don’t believe I will win the Bradley Foundation prize for innovative thinkers for this one either! And now that I’m telling the tale I cannot figure out why despite all the reasons not to, I decided to wear it! What is worse? This isn’t the first time I’m doing something like this. I recall a red singlet I had while in the University, which became some kind of after lecture uniform/signature for me and served me long beyond what any reasonable person would consider a decent period of time. In the bitter end, my flatmates conspired to hold me down and force it off me! I struggled and struggled but was outnumbered and that was the last time I saw my beloved singlet. Interestingly I got another one – a white one – in return.

One strange thing about the above incident (apart from my curious choice of color of singlet that is) and which applies to today’s incident as well is the question of why I was not serious about changing the item of clothing. I could have gotten a new singlet for a mere pittance back then and right now I have several suits less than a year old so why did I insist on the old barely presentable stuff? The closest I came to an explanation is that I attached such sentimental value and became so used to them that I couldn’t let go even when their ‘best before date’ had since passed. Think about that for a minute. I feel fairly certain that many of us are guilty of similar offences in even more profound ways than in relation to clothing.
Reassess and re-evaluate: you may discover methods that are now outdated, glorious achievements that are now past, attainments and plaudits long since obsolete and emotional props and crutches which have outlived their usefulness.

Let them go.

If you don’t let go of the encumbrance of what was you will not find what can be. Free yourself from that “red singlet” and move on to a white one! And as for those who saw me today 08/04/2014 and were wondering why I pretended not to notice them, you now know why. Biko no vex.
Needless to say nobody need force this suit off me; I will force it off myself by myself.

Sun re o, dear suit, it was nice while it lasted.