Will I Wear My Best Shirt Today?

I often write about the importance of making decisions, because, ultimately, our lives are shaped by our decisions. Where we live, who we marry, the kind of work we do, are all a reflection of the choices we’ve made. And every morning we begin our day with the seemingly mundane decision of selecting what clothes we will wear.

For me, pants are easy. I have about ten pairs of slacks, and all are similar. The problem is choosing a shirt. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the arduous process of deciding which of my many shirts I will wear. I know there are people who choose to wear the same thing every day, a uniform of sorts.  One male friend of mine always wears black.  I like variety.

And unless many shirts are at the dry cleaner I usually have about twenty to choose from.  All are custom, because I like two shirt pockets and most shirts from the store have only one. I normally order two shirts in the same fabric because there aren’t many fabrics I like, (so really, I’m only choosing between 12 different looks). What could be so difficult? Maybe I should save my mental energy for something more important. And yet…

The obvious choice would be to pick the shirt I like best each day, or as was the case last time I wrote about this process, the one I like second best. But then I’d be wearing the same shirts repeatedly. Also, I like to save my very best shirt for some unknown occasion in the future that has yet to happen.

(As an aside, I watched the Masters golf tournament over the weekend, and one of the leading professional golfers was wearing a shirt suspiciously like my own favorite, except that his shirt had NIKE on the back. Sadly, Nike has never expressed any interest in sponsoring me.)

One of these days, I might write about how I made the momentous decision to wear my very best shirt. But that is not today. Today I picked a shirt that reflects little imagination. It’s white.

Now I’m off to my office to make decisions of, hopefully, greater consequence.

Alan