Tomorrow is a suit-wearing day...

And there have been too many of those lately. It means I have to wash and iron shirts, which takes up time that I'd rather spend doing other things, like reading, thinking and collecting my thoughts together to write down here. Besides, some people think I look somewhat intimidating in a suit. I certainly don't feel comfortable in one. I don't wear them that frequently, so when I do it gets noticed, in the way that my aunts tell me that I look better with my hair cut, and some women tell me I look more impressive (is that a status judgement?).

I tend to buy new suits for specific rites of passage, predominantly the three main ones: hatchings, matchings and despatchings. The third of these is the most important of all, because you want to convey your respects to those who you might not have had a chance to say goodbye to since you last spoke. A suit, for me, therefore carries baggage, emotional and psychological. It also takes away some of my individuality, and forces me to conform to the expectations of society, like a child being made to wear a school uniform. I have no difficulty doing this for the major events of life, particularly for my nearest and dearest, but wearing a suit is not something I do lightly. He who forces me to iron shirts must have a pretty good reason for doing so.