Victory is sweet, but slightly rumpled

Sometimes life hurls you into the furnace of adversity. But you must rise to the occasion, for through great adversity, great strength is achieved.


For three weeks I have been in the wringer of adversity. I have struggled. I have cried. I have almost been at the point of admitting defeat.


I have been trying to find a new pair of jeans.


This turmoil came about as the result of Friday being casual day at work, and my having no suitable jeans to wear.


My lone pair of jeans, Old Faithful, have long been pining to enter their well-earned retirement. I have put off finding a replacement, mainly because I do not like adversity. 


But tonight, within the span of one hour, I found both a pair of jeans that fit AND a scarf that did not make me look like I was in need of surgery to remove something accidentally wrapped around my neck. My hour of triumph!


Yet getting the scarf to agree to this arrangement was not easy. Finally, after several false starts, it ceased to resemble a sailor's knot and actually began to look like a scarf.


"Good news," I told the Hero. "I finally got the scarf tied right."


He made an appropriate congratulatory noise.


"Uh, bad news," I said. "I can never take the scarf off."


"Hmm?"


"If I take it off, I'll never get it tied right again. I have to leave it on."


My victory in struggle has made me bold. This weekend, I might tackle shoe buying. And I'll be wearing my slightly rumpled, but perfectly tied, scarf.