Hello!

Welcome to The Epic! I am launching this blog as a manifesto for and a guide to living well. The title and motto of the blog are taken from the Epicureans, at least some of whom believed in the notion that not one minute of the future was guaranteed to them and that as a result they had the duty to live life to its fullest every moment.

I believe in discovering fun and pleasurable things wherever I find myself each day and I am told I have a knack for unearthing them. My hope is that by sharing in my pleasures and some of my ways of finding them you will begin to collect all the riches that lie in the moments of your life. They are there. Take them! All our lives should be.....Epic.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

End Of The Affair

I wanted this suit for years. Every summer edition of the J. Peterman catalog, there it was. Pale tan seersucker. Much more subtle than the blue seersucker suits of my past. I could not imagine any summer suit more elegant. But, rather expensive. So every year I would plan my courtship. Wait until the end of summer sale with its huge reductions. Every year, it sold out before I could make it mine.

Until this year. I took possession of my dream summer suit two days ago. The fabric is marvelous. The tailoring impeccable. The jacket fit me like bespoke. But. When I put on the trousers, there was....well.....just too many stripes. All over me. I gaped at myself in the mirror. How could this happen? This was my ultimate summer suit!

Then an awful epiphany. There apparently comes a time where one is neither young nor old enough to wear seersucker. The brashness of youth is past. The solid confidence of golden years yet to come. With a sigh I took off my long-pursued summer tans. Placed them reverently back in the container. And shipped them right back to Kentucky.

Sometimes, the chase is the thing. Not the capture. At least I have a very dapper black linen suit which remains to carry the Epic sartorial flag until Labor Day.

11 comments:

Me said...

how true... sometimes it is about the chase. and the inevitability of some dreams being just that... dreams. great writing :-)

on another note: thank you for your kind words on my 6S piece. though, not sure i have the wherewithal/talent for a full novel!

cheers...r

Turling said...

I have wanted a seersucker suit for some time. However, I believe you summed up quite well why I should wait. And, by wait, I mean waaaaiiiiittttt.......... a very long time.

~Tessa~Scoffs said...

This post hit home with me. I can fully understand falling in love with something in a catalog and wanting it for years...only to find it is not meant to be. "A thing of beauty" and all that jazz. I may be out of touch but I'm not surprised the seersucker didn't work for you. The "you" that I have experienced seems like more of a "solid color" man. Make sense?

M.Lane said...

Rashmi, thank you! What a compliment! I hope you enjoy what you find at The Epic. I have an idea to follow up on that 6s piece...

Turling, good to see your comment! As I recall, you live on the West Coast too, where you may have to be rather old to carry off the look.

Mrs. Scoffs, you are right. Sigh. I love my solids (dark now that my hair has lost almost all of its auburn hue and gone dark brown/black)and pin stripes. I'm sticking with them. I did have a seersucker suit some years ago, but then I live in the Deep South and it was pretty typical. Oh well...

ML

Ben said...

Respectfully, I must disagree with your final decision. And I don't disagree with you too often.

New suits always suffer the worst criticisms from its wearer. No one looking at you wearing it is THAT close to notice the stripes. I thought seersucker was mandatory in the south for any gentleman between the age of 14 and 114.

M.Lane said...

Ben, I thought the same. But I just couldn't handle the way I looked in it and I had to pull the rip cord. Thanks for the comment!!

ML

tintin said...

Ben is dead on. As usual.

It's Seersucker. Not Cocksucker. You have a few more days. Wear it! It's just like marriage. You'll get used to it in no time.

Petunia said...

Couldn't you just keep the jacket?
I could see that possibly the entire suit might have too many stripes, but the jacket alone would be lovely!

M.Lane said...

I am STILL laughing Tintin.

But I have to go with Petunia on this as she is the most stylish of ladies. I will keep the jacket on her recommendation.

I have worn seersucker many times before. I have no fear of seersucker. I once [in a much smaller size] had a VERY natty double breasted blue number of which I was very proud. But I tell one and all that I knew looking at myself that there were just too many elevations of [admittedly very pale] seers in this suit. Or suckers. Or whatever. The time had passed. The affair had to end.

Thank you my friends for your visits and comments!! As always.

M

DAM said...

That is so unfortunate, because as you know, I love seersucker and wish the world to wear it every Thursday between Memorial and Labor Day.

M.Lane said...

Dickie, thanks so much for the visit and comment! I hope to see you back often since by your profile I can tell we have a LOT in common.

I was shocked that I hated how I looked in this suit. I just knew I wouldn't wear it.

ML