Happiness is a Warm Button-Up

A creative's best friend is cozy, warm, easily replaced

Once, I was a person of many shirts but now….

Natural fiber, comfortable, durable, pleasing - or at least inoffensive - to the eye, and easy to slip on or off as the temperature changes or activities require: Happiness is a good overshirt, or weather demanding, a sweater.

Were I to pen a guide for would-be creative types, that would be the title of Chapter One. In the interest of layout, I might truncate it to ‘Happiness is a Good Sweater” or “…a Good Jumper” for the UK edition.

I have been fortunate. Dozens of good shirts and sweaters have found their way to me over the years. I sling them over the back of my chair, hang them on wall hooks, attach them to luggage and bags, wash them when necessary, and wear them until they are ragged. They become me, and I them. Symbiosis.

My Fall-Winter.

Pockets are a handy accessory for the Good Sweater/Jumper/Shirt. I keep my favorite toothpicks close by that way, sometimes a tissue and a few wrapped mints riding shotgun. Zip-ups and button-ups are preferable to pullovers, if only for ease of removal. 

It is better to have one than none, but better yet to have three – Fall-Winter, Winter, and Winter-Spring – in neutral colors. Thrift stores are the best place to find them. If one side of the partnership has baggage, it’s only fair the other side has some too. And it’s better for the environment and wallet. Search for new (to you) one, only when its predecessor is lost, destroyed, or must be retired.

I scoured local thrift shops until I found the exact replacement for this one.

Which is why, of course, I’m writing this today. My blue cardigan, a Winter friend for many years, recently became wholly untenable (and full of holes), and after much searching I’ve replaced it. Wool, dark gray, zip-up. No pockets, alas, but warm and not itchy.

And so armored, I am ready for the new year ahead. May you, find similar happiness.

The News Bit: 

The second book in the First Planets duology, Earth Retrograde, the sequel to Mercury Rising, is due out October 2023. Meanwhile, I’m trying to find my footing in A New Thing and teaching myself how to repair gramophones. I expect to be at the Boskone Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention in February, and I’m casting about for other conventions to hit. Until next time, blue skies.

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(Don’t touch that dial, True Believers. This substack is the latest incarnation of R.W.W. Greene’s Twenty-First-Century-Blues blog turned fitful MailChimp newsletter. This might be the one that sticks, folks, and in it will be -- every other week or so-- essays about writing, reading, music, culture, style, and writing, tempered with news about Greene’s work and other peccadilloes. If you like it, please stay tuned.)

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