Bring Me Your Naked

So I'm taking a Federal Appropriation Law class this week...and it's actually fascinating stuff: kind of a really detailed laundry list about what you may and may not do with government monies. All of which is useful if you're a person who deals with government monies...which, you know, I do. And the instructor, despite repeatedly chastising me for my nerdy overparticipation in the class (sometimes I can't seem to keep my inner-geek at bay...*struggle*), is really great...he has lots of good stories...there's occasional moments of humor. It's actually been fun.

I'm trying to keep what I'm about to share on the down-low...because if the aforementioned squirrel in my head gets wind of it, I'll be lost in fits of exaggerated giggling for the better part of the day...but here's the big a-ha moment from class this morning:

"The government does not clothe the naked."

The context was all about how government employees are expected to have clothing appropriate to the job unless it's hazardous duty, etc., etc., etc., ...so you can't spend appropriated funds on wearing apparel except in very specific or statutorily specified circumstances...

But my silly head, of course, went elsewhere... from the wisdom of some people showing up to work naked (subtext: for most of the people I work with that would be soooo not wise)...to social service programs...because, well, maybe the government sort of does clothe the naked when it comes to poverty and/or the homeless... Of course, not everyone who's poor and/or lives on the street is actually naked...but if they were, would the government clothe them??

There was this kid in my second grade class who came from an extreme impoverished family...and he smelled kind of awful every day when he showed up. I remember the teachers taking him out of class periodically, and when he came back, he looked cleaner and was in different clothes. I tutored him in math for awhile in that second-grader-to-second-grader way. I thought I'd never forget his name...but it appears that I have. It was mostly just sad at the time...but looking back, I think what an amazing thing for those teachers to do...because probably those clothes came from donations of some sort and you know it wasn't strictly part of their educational charter to improve his life in that way. But they did it. Very cool stuff.

And there you have it.
Musings on Clothing.
By Me. (and, probably, my squirrel).