Sunday, July 22, 2012

The Pajama Game

I won't say that I'm morally opposed to pajamas, but the idea that we all need an entirely different wardrobe to sleep in has always kinda stuck in my craw.
I mean isn't Victoria's Secret just that she's overcharging us?
I understand of course that we don't want to sleep in our dirty clothes, but what about a xx-large t-shirt? Some long johns?
It's dangerous I think, to wear pajamas that are too cute and comfortable. You might linger in them through breakfast. You might then think it's okay to run to the P.O. or grab a quick cup of Joe in them - no one's really going to see you right?
But where does it all lead? Once you're comfortable in jammies at the bus stop, why not at the teacher conference? Why not at parent pick up?
Pretty soon it's dinner and you're still dressed in your pjs. You've now blurred the lines between awake and asleep as if your life is just one long lucid dream not to mention what you're doing to polite society. Pretty soon we'll be flossing our teeth at our work stations and clipping our toe nails in the break room.
I was an xx-large t-shirt gal until I had kids and thought my children might be traumatized if their mom didn't wear pajamas. Lord knows I was traumatized in my youth by my dad's lack of good pajama coverage. So in addition to a few mismatched tops and bottoms from the second-hand shop, I cashed in some LL Bean bucks and invested in official summer and winter sets.
However, in light of my zen practice, I've recently come to view pajamas in a different night light. Pajamas - or at least the act of changing into them signifies the transition from daytime to nighttime (assuming you do in fact change out of them in the morning).

musical: The Pajama Game • artists: Adler and Ross

2 comments:

Who Woulda Thought? said...

I wear sleep shorts and that is only because I was told when we have kids I needed to wear something to bed just in case I had to get up or one of them crawled into bed with us.

And this post is exactly why I despise the pajama bottom wearing douches out in public.

Joanne said...

When I was in college lots of girls in my dorm wore sweatpants all the time. I hated that too. Don't wear sweatpants unless you are going to exercise. This has led to people wearing yoga clothes who've never done yoga in their lives. Where does it end?