Romantic? Poetic? Profound? What is the truth?

Daily writing prompt

What’s the oldest things you’re wearing today?

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I’d like to write that my wedding rings are the oldest thing I’m wearing today, but it’s been a few years since I’ve worn them. That would be the romantic answer. But the unromantic reality is that my fingers started getting bigger and they swell up from time to time and I was worried my rings would get stuck. I’ll take them to a jeweler to have them expanded at some point. So ask me again in a month or so and maybe the answer will be that my wedding rings are the oldest things I’m wearing. But for now. Nope.

So maybe it’s my skin that’s the oldest thing. But I heard recently that people shed on average five million skin cells a day. They are rapidly regenerating. I’ve witnessed this recently as radiation killed off the outer layer (layers?) of my skin. Yes, it was about as painful as that sounds. But just as soon as I was able to get in to see the doctor, it started to grow back.

Maybe it’s the mask, like the one that the Fugees rap about. Maybe that’s the oldest thing that I’m wearing. But the truth is that I’m not even wearing one right now, in the privacy of my own home, on my own blog. In fact, one of the reasons I started this blog is so that I can have a place to not wear the mask.

Maybe it’s something even more archaic. My DNA? Those double helixes of code deeply embedded in my cells. My soul? My ancestral burdens? But all of that? Even these ancient inheritances can be remade in each breath, in a single moment. From this one to this next. Epigenetics. Beginner’s mind. A prayer.

I’d like for the real answer to be poetic or romantic; profound or philosophical. Deeply spiritual.

But the truth rarely is. And the truth is that the oldest thing I’m wearing is…

my underwear.

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