Socks don't have to be boring

 

I decorate my laptop and also my former ever-so-boring beige car, which was 1% less boring than the thousands of black, gray or white cars making the highways depressing especially on cloudy days. What do European car manufacturers have against color?

Socks were the same. Boooooooring.  No more. There are many choices to reflect mood and interests.

I wanted different socks, and I've found them. Here are some of my favorite non-boring socks.They take the ho hum of getting dressed into a memory or idea generator for the day. At the very least they make me smile. Some of my choices:

• The Kiss by Gustave Klimt. I was lucky enough to see the painting in Vienna. The model Adèle Bloch Bauer sat for Klimt twice. A a wealthy Jewish socialist who was unhappy, she was childless after a miscarriage. What were the discussions between the painter and the model on the gold dress he painted rather than the white dresses she preferred? Fun to imagine. She died, age 43, of meningitis. Those socks evoke memories of the Vienna trip. not just of the museum, but little sandwiches, conversations with my writer friend and family, summer nights sitting in their garden and more. Not bad for slipping pieces of cloth onto my feet.
• People who know how I love to read send me socks with books on them. There's something about a rainy day, a good book(s) tea while wearing those socks.
• My favorite pair of all time was a birthday gift. What makes it so special? There's an avatar of me along with my name. The giver is someone with whom I've shared so much bad, good and middling.
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020). Something about having a woman I admire on my feet reminds me of how far women have become in my lifetime. She was a civil rights activist and a Supreme Court Judge. As a woman, she had trouble being considered for posts that she was more than qualified for. Her courage and intelligence is an inspiration.
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• My truly favorite woman of all time is Eleanor of Aquitaine (1137-1304) wife of French King Louis V11, Plantagenet King Henry 11, mother of English kings Richard the Lionhearted and John who signed the Magna Carta. She gave birth to the queens of Castile and Sicily.For my 75th birthday, rather than have a party I went to visit her tomb at the Fontevraud Abbey, which she had built. She was buried next to Henry and Richard. I never put on the socks that I don't remember being in her presence as well as the wonderful meal and exploring the abbey with its rich history.
• Not the least historical, literary or arty are my socks with pictures of movie house popcorn boxes and popcorn. They are fun.
• Kitten socks...Even if I'm more a dog person, I melt for cute cats and cute socks. I can do cute. Cute makes me smile.

I would love some Eleanor Roosevelt socks for my birthday but I'm torn between not buying anything American (they are sold at the Smithsonian and Val-kill) andcpleasure  knowing I'd be wearing something Trump hated. Even more important was her work for everything I believe in.

It may seem silly to some, but things like socks help me survive the disaster the U.S and world has become.