Most everyone who grew up with siblings understands the
concept of community pants by way of the hand me down. Being the second of four
brothers I grew up being handed, and handing, pants down the line from brother
to brother. In the hand me down scenario
you always have something to put on but something new is far rarer. Unfortunately adolescence isn’t an easy time
to appreciate the public pantry of pants concept and much angst is felt by many
who powerlessly participate in it.
Fortunately the novelty of ownership subsides as the years accumulate.
Unfortunate however is the fact that hand me downs in a family become less and
less of a viable option as the size of sibs equalizes in adulthood. In
adulthood there is no natural progression of pants from oldest to youngest. The
natural downhill succession levels out so that the flow of clothes easily comes
to a stop.
The lowest energy state for pants exists in adulthood. Here the
only option is for the pants to pile and gather. To get the flow going again
new energy has to be infused into the situation. This higher energy state can be termed “hand
me sideways” and can act as a pump to raise the potential energy of the pants
out of its low state.
I am really happy to say that most of the pants in my drawer
didn’t start out as my own, they have been handed sideways. Today I count it as a great source of joy and
happiness to participate in the lineage of the pants because like water, returned
as snow to the top of a mountain, sideways pants have the energy to flow back
down the mountain. This is to say that once you’ve been given pants you are
more likely to give away pants.
Community pants remind me of Matthew 6. In this chapter
Jesus reminds us of all the ways we are taken care of by God and that
everything we have is from God.
Ben.
ReplyDeleteYesterday your brother was wearing some red velvet Harlem Globetrotter tribute pants that he got for his 16th birthday. I said, "nice pants," but I was being sarcastic. Dad said, "those pants have held up really well," and he meant it. I respect your point of view, but I'm not sure that your brothers' pants hoarding has anything to do with God. Possibly the opposite!
Love, Mom, who is wearing ten year old pants, with holes and paint.
Very true. It is easy to identify materialism when it is about buying new stuff and keeping up with the Joneses but worshiping at the foot of a hoarders pile is also risky.
DeleteI like the idea of hand me sideways because it comes with a recognition that we are called called to live in community and to be stewards not stock pilers of stuff.