Personal Brands and Busy Widows

They say spring is coming and I’ve started thinking about buying some new clothes. I don’t do that very often compared to most women I've known. I have clothes that are old enough to collect pensions, but I could use a smaller size. I do have some things in boxes that will fit but they’re up high on a shelf. However, unless my orthopedic doctor changes his mind when I see him next week, that’s where they’ll have to stay until the end of May when my post-surgery restrictions are lifted. A decade or less ago I started writing the year I purchase a new garment on its labels. Why, I don’t know. I do crazy things like that and try to justify my actions later on. Later hasn’t landed yet and until it does, I’ll keep dating my clothes---that sounds weird. Blue pantsuit, would you like to go out for dinner sometime?

Since I need some new clothes I thought I’d do a little research. God knows I could use a style concept that doesn’t include sweat pants taking the place of the “little black dress”---good for all occasions by dressing them up or down with accessories. Should I wear the black tennis shoes or the hot pink ones? Okay, I don’t have a pair of black tennis shoes but not for lack of trying. Some of the color combinations those companies put on running shoes are god-awful. My feet are not my best feature why call attention to them? If my foot doctor had his way I’d be wearing running shoes them 24/7. Get this: he actually wants me to put them on just to go the bathroom in the middle of the night. If I took the time for that---well, you know where this is going. Not going to happen. Needless to say, my wardrobe choices are strongly influenced by my shoes. No sexy high heel shoes for me. No strappy sandals. I do cheat and wear a lot of Crocs and when I do I hope Mr. Good-Looking-Podiatrist never sees me out in public.  

In my research of what’s hot this year I ran across something called “personal branding.” What? I’m not Jessica London, Jackie Collins or what’s-her-name---the lady who turned her big butt into a brand all its own. Okay, that was cattie.  Bad, Jean! Bad! The point is why do ordinary people living ordinary lives need a personal brand? One website that sells workbooks for you to figure out what your personal brand is claims a personal brand is like a calling card, it’s “how people will experience you.” We’re supposed to “deliver our brands clearly to make it easier for others to get to know us.” Okay, isn’t that just another way to say we need to be authentic? The workbooks help you to discover your unique strengths and talents, your values, passions and purpose in life. I’ve got news for workbook people: if I don’t already know these things about myself, it’s a little too late in life for a trip inside myself to do any good. I think the idea of creating a personal brand is silly. We’re always evolving, always changing so why should we pigeonhole ourselves? And if I wanted to brand myself as a deep thinking what am I supposed to do, sit around naked like Rodin’s The Thinker sculpture? That’s not the kind of wardrobe change I have in mind. Note: It’s only in my warped world that wardrobes and personal branding are used interchangeably. A wardrobe can enhance your branding but it not your branding. 

The newsletter from the senior hall came in the mail recently and that always prompts me to sit right down and read all fourteen pages so I can get my RSVPs in right away. They get filled up quickly. My April and May RSVPs include: a restaurant hop along Lake Michigan, a day trip to an underground railroad museum, two luncheons, five lectures (on the following topics: baseball during the Civil War, making granola, selling and buying a house, President Lincoln, and the history of the Detroit Tigers) and I signed up for my first ever an “off Broadway” musical, a Beatles Tribute at the preforming arts center. I also signed up to help with spring cleaning at the senior hall and I volunteered to help with the May luncheon. There were so many things to choose from it was hard to narrow down my choices! You can't do everything the senior hall offers and still have time to do what needs to be done in the other areas of your life.

The temperature tonight is supposed to dip to two above but temperatures in the 40s are in the ten day forecast. I can almost taste spring coming even though the world outside my window is still a blanket of white. Makes me glad I don’t live in Russia. With my tendency towards writing irrelevant and irreverent things I’d probably get banished to Siberia. Wait! Did I just brand myself as an irrelevant widow with bad feet, a closet full of old clothes, and a desire to sit naked on top of a block of marble? ©