the great packing debate; round 1

“You cannot take this.”  Anniemay is holding up one of my tee-shirts.  One of my favourite tee-shirts.  I explain that I am very attached to it - we’ve been together a long time.  “That’s the problem”.

It’s not that bad.  I acknowledge that we have seen many summers together.  There’s a reason for that; it’s plain, simple and fits.  It does not have a logo or a slogan inviting people to make all sorts of assumptions about my political views, how I spend my spare time or who my favourite band was in 1968.

It may be a little frayed around the edges - but then aren’t we all?  (I keep referring to ‘it’ in the singular; all my tee-shirts are like this.)

The art of managing conflict is knowing when to make a strategic withdrawal.  A gather up my friends and return them to their drawer - there is after all, a summer still to come.  

And then head off to the shopping centre in order to buy some new ones.