I want to thank all these people below. They gave me hand-me-down clothes at one point in the last 12 years and I’m still wearing them.
I’ve been thinking about how when someone gives you new clothes, you think to write a Thank You card. And if you are an asshole, like me, that is as far as you get. Other people follow the thought with the action.
It’s hard enough for me to write a Thank You card when I know I’m supposed to, but when people give used clothes, I think there is a national understanding that donating is kind and quick, maybe you’ll get a hug or a tax write-off, but never a Thank You card. Maybe because if you drop-off at the Good Will, you never know who is going to receive it, and the receiver doesn’t have an address with which to send a card, and the good deed goes by in a woosh. But even when you give clothes to a friend, there is joy, and gratitude, feelings of Yay! But never a Thank You card.
I might be wrong about that. I haven’t asked enough hand-me-downees about their card giving rates…
Anyway, you guys, my dear friends who have given me clothes, I don’t know if you know that I think of you all of the time when I get dressed (dirty) and that when you casually and generously gave me an item of clothing, it really helped me out!
(Also, you may not know you gave me clothing because you may have given it to a friend who gave it to me, or you may have put it in a bin on the sidewalk for homeless people and while needing the bin, I discovered the clothes and kept them as well… But that second scenario person knows I have her clothes because she is my neighbor and I told her about it. Because I knew that inevitably one day she would see me wearing a full outfit made entirely of her wardrobe and it’d be weird for both of us. If I didn’t prep her beforehand… “So don’t be weirded out,” I texted, “…or DO be weirded out, but don’t be surprised.” She’s cool with it.)
Today I felt like you should know the impact you’ve made so I’m writing you this virtual Thank You card and yelling a loud belly “THANK YOU” to you.
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