My Favorite clothes:

My favorite clothes are not something I can wear down the street.

I can't go to the grocery store in my favorite clothes without getting at best disapproving scowls, and at worst getting kicked out of the store.

If I walked into your living room in my favorite clothes, you would probably wonder what the cat dragged in.

To briefly list their faults:

• These clothes are mismatched.

• These clothes are torn.

• These clothes are filthy.

These clothes seem to say that I don't understand basic hygiene, that I'm probably someone who isn't right in the head, or that I have no respect for order and decency.

Why would a sane person be dressed like this?

Because I use these clothes when I go caving.

For me, these clothes have a different meaning than can be seen at first glance:

• These clothes do not mark me as an outcast, they show that I belong.

• These clothes do not say that I'm unable to take care of myself, they show that I have gone beyond the edge of the world I know.

• The dirt on these clothes is not careless, it is hard earned.

Part of the tradition I have developed while going caving is that every time I go caving and put my clothes in the washing machine, my caving shirt becomes a shade darker from the mud.

The day (years from now) when you see an old geezer walking down the street in a tattered ruddy-brown shirt... don't scowl at him, or wonder why he has that stupid grin on his face...

Go up to him, and shake his hand... congratulate him on a job well done.