I’ve decided that one of the strongest pieces of evidence supporting the idea that God made us for community is that I seem incapable of shopping for clothes on my own.
It takes a team of expert consultants (mostly my daughters and/or my mom who is 78, but has been known to swap clothes with the 24-year-old so she’s very cool dontchaknow).
We’re spread out, but devoted to each other and committed avoiding having a candid photo of us show up in Glamour magazine with the headline “Fashion Don’ts”.
So we take pictures of ourselves in dressing rooms wherever we are shopping and text them to each other asking the others to weigh in and give advice.
I’m not kidding.
Recent evidence (with permission from my darling daughter :):
Here’s a sample of a conversation from a few years ago when one of us was in Chicago, one in D.C., one in Guatemala, and me in Minnesota:
MN: What do you think of this (sending pic)
D.C. and Guat (simultaneously): We’ve told you you are NOT allowed to wear animal prints! No! PUT IT BACK. NOW!
However “Chicago” is not text savvy so it usually takes all three of the rest of us and a super detective decoder kit to figure out what she’s trying to communicate.
Here’s one with Chicago weighing in:
Chicago to Guatemala: maggie honery– these are the shies with me in then. i was goint to senx you a pic of the shies without me in them but
tgrajpy ran out of memory. hoooooooooope you cam tell a lllitttl bout how they loopk
Guat to D.C. and MN: HELP NEEDED. Anyone have any idea what “tgrajpy”is?
And do you guys think she can pull off these shoes unless she’s going to be flamenco dancing?
Last year I texted my daughters that now in tennis lessons for the first time in fifteen years I feel like the home-schooled kid going to public school for the first time and realizing I’m not dressed like the cool kids.
Maggie, ever supportive responded: “You’re a cool kid in my book.”
Now you may think the topics of our texts are ridiculous, but whether it’s about fashion or future plans isn’t this what we all crave in community?
Someone to care.
Someone to tell us the truth.
Someone to encourage us.
Someone to reassure us that regardless of what the rest of the world thinks, we’re cool in their eyes.
Where are you finding community these days?
