On Clothes

And the weaver said, Speak to us of

Clothes.

And he answered:

Your clothes conceal much of your

beauty, yet they hide not the

unbeautiful.

And though you seek in garments the

freedom of privacy you may find in them

a harness and a chain.

Would that you could meet the sun and

the wind with more of your skin and less

of your raiment,

For the breath of life is in the

sunlight and the hand of life is in the

wind.

Some of you say, “It is the north wind

who has woven the clothes we wear.”

And I say, Ay, it was the north wind,

But shame was his loom, and the

softening of the sinews was his thread.

And when his work was done he laughed in

the forest.

Forget not that modesty

is for a shield against the eye of the

unclean.

And when the unclean shall be no more,

what were modesty but a fetter and a

fouling of the mind?

And forget not that the earth delights

to feel your bare feet and the winds

long to play with your hair.