I wore a suit last Friday. Just to see what it felt like to be in a suit in New York. At first I was hesitant, but mostly that came from the walk from my apartment to the A train. I felt out of place and certainly overdressed. It only worsened on the train, as many blue collar workers joined me on our joint commute into the city. I did not feel that I was suddenly better than any of them, but I felt that they might have thought so. One woman on the train kept looking at me, but perhaps she was just curious why this lone white man was on her train, wearing a suit. If she had asked, I would not have been able to give her any real insight. Other than I was bored. And that I wanted to. Once I switched to the F train I was immediately just one of the crowd, though. It is interesting how diverse yet segregated (in a way) the trains are here. It is something that I have thought about many times since living here. Each train has a certain type of crowd, which I suppose makes sense based on the area it serves, and therefore, you could assume, the economic class it serves. But more than that, each train has a particular feel. This is a little harder to describe, but I feel, pretty obvious once you experience it. Anyway, I was way overdressed for work, of course, but there is something that nice clothes can do for you that I am interested in. Sure it can add confidence if you feel good about yourself, but is there more than that? Perhaps. I am mostly interested in it because I like the idea of the suit as a uniform. Anything that can simplify my life is interesting to me. And I doubt that any time soon, or maybe, ever, I will have the reason to wear a suit everyday. But I could see myself having one, maybe two simple black suits. A few white dress shirts, and some ties and being completely happy. Because it is a uniform in a way, but it is also so customizable. It is sort of a great thing.
[Editor's Note] After further reflection on this I decided that it was sort of an interesting social experiment. For whatever I felt, certainly by doing something out of the ordinary I inspired others to feel also. And I think that I made people uncomfortable. Everyone that I work with could not really understand that I was just wearing a suit. I can not even count the number of times that separate people asked "Where are you going?" or even the simpler, "Why?". I suppose that it was ultimately my fault for not being able to fully explain myself. But I really did not believe that I had to. For what it's worth, I think we could all use a little more of the out-of-ordinary routine.
Not sure why I was thinking about all of this, but there it is. It has gotten quite hot recently here. But only for a couple hours a day. It still cools off in the mornings and evenings and I like it. I am heading back to Florida for five days starting late Wednesday. It will be my longest time away from the city since moving here. And my first return to my prior home. It will be interesting to see how the dynamics have changed.
