Pearle’s Perspective #07: LL Bean
Dear Friends,
I pulled out my old L.L. Bean Field Coat the other day for a hike. I don’t know what inspired the decision. I haven’t worn it in 30+ years. It spoke to me from the back of my closet, like an old friend aching to be acknowledged.
An example of durability and timeless style, this coat has been produced by L.L. Bean for 101 years. Once I put my coat back on it was as if no time had passed. The corduroy collar, once an olive green, has faded to a muted moss. The cuffs are frayed, but the wool lining is intact and the buttons are still sewn tight. It was as strong as the day in 1984 when I put it on for the first time.
In college, I never needed a purse. The coat’s pockets held everything I might need. I remember being able to put a can of beer in each pocket as I trekked across campus to a frat party. I wore that coat to the sticky wine cooler-coated floors of Peggy’s bar far more often than I did to my Economics class. I wore that coat when I declared my major and fell in love for the first time.
After graduation I traveled through Europe, living out of a backpack for a year. My Field Coat took me from the banks of the Seine…
…to the fall of communism in East Germany in 1989.
I carried pieces of the Berlin Wall in my Field Coat pockets.
Eventually my travels eventually took me to a kibbutz in the Golan Heights. Much to my parents' dismay I had the time of my life, working hard and finding many cute Israeli and fellow volunteer boys to date.
I stayed nearly a year until scud missiles landed in Kiryat Shmona a few kilometers away. I bought a ticket home, threw all the clothes I wore during my travels away, but my Field Coat remained and landed safely in the United States, waiting for its next move.
My Field Coat has been my guide during times of great personal growth. At College discovering autonomy for the first time. Discovering areas of interest and goals without parental influence. Traveling the world solo and feeling the freedom of creating my own agenda and path, destination unknown.
Through my 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s I could never put this coat into the donation pile. It made it there a couple times but every time I retrieved it and tucked it safely back into my closet unwilling to let it go.
My daughter left for college this past fall so it is not surprising that I plucked the coat out of my closet. I am ready to explore and figure out the next road to take. I am reclaiming a part of myself that was dormant while I was building a home, marriage and raising a child. My responsibilities didn’t evaporate, they just shifted. I feel the excitement of what is yet to come, dreaming of my next chapters. Like my coat, I put myself back into rotation again.
When I finally put it on again, memories of youth, exploration, growth, and resilience came rushing back. The coat was familiar in all the right places. I flipped up the collar, rolled up the sleeves and felt the strength of that coat and myself.
I am happy to report that the coat is still a perfect fit.
xoxo
P & P