My Favorite Sweater

Close to ten years ago, my friend Carol gave this sweater to me. I've worn it extremely ragged, but I still wear it. Whatever elasticity the ends of the sleeves once had is long gone; in fact a lot of the fabric seems to be long gone.

The neck is worn, too, and there are tiny stains sprinkled about its surface – I've eaten way too many meals that splashed one thing or another and I attacked the splash either too late or simply unsuccessfully. The brightness of the fabric has been lost with repeated washings and wearings and washings and wearings...

I still wear the sweater in public, too. It's my sweater... it's comfortable and I like wearing it, and if anybody wants to think ill of that, I suppose they can. If I wore a new sweater, no doubt someone would figure out a way to find fault with that, too.