New shirt

When I'm in America someone giving me a basic Old Navy shirt probably wouldn't make it on my blog, but in the DR it does.

Antonio's mom was wearing this shirt last week and I told her I liked it. He said she was going to give it to me. I tried to say no, but she said she was going to wash it and give it to me. She said it was for a younger lady. Okay. Fine.

I actually forgot about it until I went back to visit and she pulled it out for me. (I want to say that it's now ironic that I spend so much time saying I'm not from New York and now I will be sporting a "New York" t-shirt.)

It reminds me of the generosity I experienced in Germany. I told a woman I liked her purse. The first time I was able to leave purseless, but the second time I mentioned it she literally dumped her purse out and pushed it into my hands.

With all these wonderful examples of generosity, I have to wonder if I am as generous with my things. Are they even mine? Sure, I "earned" the money to buy the things, or acquired a generous friend who gave me the object, but is that enough to say that the object is mine from here on out?

I buy copies of my favorite book so I can give them out, but that's really for me. I think the book is great and when others read it and agree I feel good about picking a good book.

That very purse I was given was really hard for me to give up. I would tell the story and still feel good about keeping the purse.

I'm not going to jump into some long story about how I feel like a monster for not being more generous. I'd be lying for one and it would be pointless for another, but when I think about the joy I felt when these two women from two very different cultures gave me literally the clothing off their backs, I have to wonder if the culture I've ingrained in myself allows for the same kind of generosity and what kind of person I want to be.

I'll include a picture of the shirt here and it'll probably shift to the top of the blog, because that's what my emails seem to do.

I'll also ask, ladies, when you are taking a picture of your shirt on your body do you always feel like you are just taking a picture of the ladies, or is that just me? I took the picture like 7 times and it still feels like a tit shot. I almost took the shirt off and took a picture of it hanging up or something, but I also don't like getting dressed more than once, so I left it.

Whatever, that's the shirt, ignore the girls attached to it.