Friday, April 09, 2010

Hour Glass


I have these jeans.
They are my favorite jeans.
They are so forgiving, and soft, and they look good all the time.
When I gain a few pounds, they still fit.
When I lose a few pounds, I wash them and they fit again.

I love these jeans.

But then my daughter wore them and put a hole in the knee.

I think she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,
but I was still not very happy,
because these jeans have been with me for years.

I knew they were getting old, but hadn't been able to find them in any store,
and that hole propelled me to call the 800 number for Levi's.

The nice woman on the phone said yes they still make them,
and she would send me a pair with no shipping fee.

When they arrived I pulled them right on, right out of the package,
and ahhhh.....they are just the best jeans ever.
And they get softer every year.

Until they wear out.

I stood there in my new jeans, pondering this.

I thought, "One of these days they are going to stop making these jeans."

And then I had the brainstorm of ordering enough jeans to last me the rest of my life!

I thought how great it would be to pull on a fresh pair of my favorite jeans when I am
in my eighties.

So then of course I had to do some math in my head, to figure out how many pairs of jeans I would need to order.

And then I had another thought.

I pictured this tall, orderly pile of plastic-wrapped jeans on the shelf in my closet.

I imagined myself, every few years, pulling out a fresh pair.

And every few years, seeing the pile get a little bit smaller.

So then of course I imagined myself being very protective of my jeans,
carefully preserving each pair, making them last as long as possible,
trying to tweak a few extra months here or there along the way.

And then I thought about how I would feel when I opened up that last pair of jeans.

The last pair.

They will be horribly out of style by then.
But they will be soft and they will still fit.

And I hope that I will wear them out.
Literally.
I hope I finish up that last pair with a huge hole in the knee.

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