Thursday Appointment Style. . .

 

A sunny, warmer Thursday yesterday, so out came the tan belt and shoes when I dressed in a few of the usual suspects to shuttle the Young Master from school to a mid-morning appointment and then back again.  Child safely deposited and signed in by 10:15, and I was back home by 10:35.

Now, some scratch their heads and wonder aloud why you should bother to dress for similar kinds of appointments (doctors, dentists, orthodontists, law offices, bankers, air travel, etc.), either your own or your child's, when almost everyone else looks like they just rolled out of bed and pulled on whatever was handy from beneath the it.  Frumpy is the new lingua franca it seems.  

Here's the answer. 

People in all walks of life simply react better to and treat you with a higher level of polite deference and respect when you present yourself well and look like you have more than a couple of active brain cells functioning somewhere behind your eyes.  There are, admittedly, adherents to a certain school of thought who take offense at that and make a great show of their outrage.  Nevertheless.

I've been on both sides of the table, as it were, and can attest to this.  Outré hairstyles, an over abundance of visible body modifications, denim and leather, or stretchy exercise gear of one kind or another, -- not to mention a windbreaker and white socks worn with black shoes/sneakers (Check out the adult males in almost any waiting room in 2024) -- don't have quite the same effect as clean, pressed, and relatively pulled together.  Like it or not, appearance is important, and how we present ourselves speaks volumes to the world.

Here's modest proposal.

Why not put your best foot forward when you leave the house?  The easy answer is to dress more presentably before walking through the front door to meet the world, so that you might make a favorable impression with whomever you interact.  

You just never know.

-- Heinz-Ulrich