Dirty Clothing (Draft 1.0)

Dirty Clothing

I was on the bus on the way home, when at one of the stops, a man boarded. Since the bus was crowded, he had to remain standing…near me. Suddenly I was hit by a foul stench and it was obvious where the stench came from because that same man was sweaty and muddy from what looked like sports practice.

The stench affected the people around him. It was obvious from the way people covered their noses or turned their faces away, trying to evade the stench.

The stench affected him the most though. On top of looking very uncomfortable covered in sweat and mud, he looked around self-consciously when he realized that people around him on the bus were spaced further away from him than they were spaced away from other people, and that other people cast him offended glares for being a public nuisance.

This incident made me realize how a foul body odor affects others, and most of all, us.

I experienced this personally one day when I came home after practice and had to help out with some urgent chores, all the while remaining in the sweaty, grimy state I came home in. I felt reluctant to do the chores the entire time because I had not showered and felt an itch crawling on my skin. It was very uncomfortable, and I couldn’t do the chores as efficiently because I felt weighed down by how gross I felt.

Then I got to thinking, what if I had just showered and changed before doing the chores? I would have smelled good and felt fresh. And I would probably have finished my chores faster, and without reluctance.

Likewise, that stinky guy on the bus would have not have attracted glares and looks of disgust if he had just showered or changed into fresh clothes after his sports practice. Hey, maybe if he smelled good and looked fresh, he would have had a couple of chicks checking him out!

Clinging on to dirty clothes doesn’t do others good. Washing ourselves clean and changing into a fresh set of clothes helps put us on a clean slate. In the same way, we should keep emotionally clean slates in our lives. When I say “emotionally clean”, what I’m talking about is forgiveness - washing our past hurts away so that we can be refreshed and free of our dirty memories instead of walking around with a huge stain that shows.

A stain.

It shows.

People notice the stain and wonder how come we haven’t got rid of it, just like wondering how come we haven’t got over things that happened in the past. The trouble is that when people notice the stains, they mark us out as people who don’t have the self-respect to look fresh and feel clean. In the same way, they would mark out resentful and bitter people as people who don’t have the self-respect to be above petty issues, or to overcome past hurts.

The stains and dirty clothing don’t just affect people’s perceptions of us. The person it really affects the most… is ourselves.

It’s important to wash these stains off as soon as possible. If you leave them on for too long, it’s going to getter tougher and tougher to remove.

Getting our emotions on a clean slate requires us to forgive others for their wrongdoings or past hurts. Some of these were intentional, some were unintentional, but trying to take revenge or staying bitter about it doesn’t do anything to improve the situation.

Forgiveness is what allows us to clean our slate and start afresh. Forgiveness releases us from past grievances and hurts, and purges us of our stenches and stains. And in releasing us this way, it releases others from bearing the brunt of stenches and unsightly stains.

Forgiveness releases others, and forgiveness releases us – and release is the wonderful feeling we get when we put on crisp, clean clothing!