Publius & Co.

All dressed up with someplace to go.

I'm wearing a tie at work today. I'm not required to wear one, but I'm wearing one today.

My tie today features bicycles. Other ties hanging up in my closet have cartoon characters, bright colors & patterns, baseballs, Humphrey Bogart, AIDS awareness ribbons, and sports teams. Heck, I even have one or two with stripes on them, for those times when I have to be serious (job interviews, mostly). Before there was a business casual policy at work, I'd wear my non-serious ties, and people would stop me in the halls so they could see which tie I was wearing.

I look nice in a tie, and I've heard it all today. "Hey, sharp-dressed man!" "Got a job interview tonight?" "I've forgotten how much I like your ties!" For those, I can just smile, or nod my thanks at the compliment.

And I've had some people ask, "Why are you so dressed up?" I try to spare their feelings, but I can't. They're not hurt or anything by my answer, usually just uncomfortable.

See, I'm going to a wake tonight. My gf touched on it earlier in the week (but in case you didn't know, a friend was killed while riding his bicycle to work Friday morning). It's on Capital Hill, so it makes sense for me to come to work "all dressed up," as I work downtown.

I'm trying to figure out why my co-workers are uncomfortable. I don't think there's any reason for them to be embarrassed; people die every day. Maybe because it's because they didn't expect my answer, but I find that difficult to understand. I mean, when I ask a question, I expect an answer, and the answer I get is the answer I get and there's no reason to be embarrassed about it.

I can't figure people out sometimes.

I did get one nice response. "I hope your heart heals soon," one of my more spiritual co-workers told me.

I gave her my thanks, but I owe her more than that. As I walked away, I realized the healing started when I picked up my bicycle tie. Weird, eh?

Well, David didn't own a car. He loved riding his bike, and he rode it everywhere. I thought I was picking this tie out for him, and maybe I did. But as I think more about it, I think maybe I picked this tie out for me.

Posted by Victor at Marzo 31, 2004 01:03 PM