The mind is a mysterious thing. My first thought this morning was, “She’s a year old today.”, she being my first grandchild. A happy thought no doubt, but what does this has to do with Rules? Or this picture of the masked Greek?
Indulge me. As I was thinking about the gift that I had sent to the wee one, I was fishing around for a new handkerchief-my two workhorse coronavirus bandanas being in the laundry. And voila! It’s almost as if my thinking of birthday gifts made this one appear, for it too was a birthday gift.
My father was one of the few men I know who always had a clean, cloth handkerchief in his back pocket. It was usually plain white cotton with a rolled edge. Simple, unadorned. For one of his advanced birthdays, when he had become “the person who has everything”, there was still a strong pull to find something that he might like and use- or at least something that wouldn’t be a burden. Irish linen handkerchiefs with a tiny monogram fit the bill. He used them a bit reluctantly claiming they were almost too nice for “blow” rather than '“show”. When he died a few years later and we were sorting his odds and ends, we found them, neatly ironed and folded. And this sentimental keepsake has been tucked away in my dresser drawer ever since-until today.
I wondered if it could be folded into a triangle and worn bandit-style like the bandanas. What a happy discovery. This oversized hankie works perfectly in this new capacity. It makes me realize that they were probably too big to be what my father would have preferred, but he knew that not burdening someone with unwanted and unusable gifts mattered to me, and even if he hadn’t, he was too polite and generous to have told me that the darn things were really too big.
Today, a new lease on life, not despite, but because of the Age of Corona. A footnote: when checking to see if the plural of handkerchief was handkerchiefs or handkerchieves, (which both looked strangely correct and incorrect), I read that the hankie is a symbol of love, thanks to Othello and Desdemona. True for JHMT as well.
And the answer to plural- take your pick.