[00:02.46]Criteria of Excellency
[00:07.64]My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat simultaneously.
[00:14.39]It was hanging on a rack at a secondhand clothing store
[00:17.76]in Northampton Mass,
[00:19.82]crammed in with shoddy trench coats and an assortment of sad,
[00:23.66]woolen overcoats—a rose among thorns.
[00:26.70]While the other coats drooped,
[00:28.98]this one looked as if it were holding itself up.
[00:31.45]The thick, black wool of the double-breasted chesterfield
[00:35.18]was soft and unworn, as though it had been preserved
[00:38.61]in mothballs for years in dead old Uncle Henry's steamer trunk.
[00:42.46]The coat had a black velvet collar, beautiful tailoring,
[00:46.08]a Fifth Avenue label and an unbelievable price of $28.
[00:50.99]We looked at each other, saying nothing,
[00:53.77]but John's eyes gleamed. Dark, woolen topcoats were popular
[00:58.83]just then with teenage boys,
[01:00.45]but could cost several hundred dollars new.
[01:03.21]This coat was even better,
[01:05.05]bearing that touch of classic elegance from a bygone era.
[01:08.72]John slid his arms down into the heavy satin lining of the sleeves
[01:13.06]and buttoned the coat. He turned from side to side,
[01:16.55]eyeing himself in the mirror with a serious,
[01:19.65]studied expression that soon changed into a smile.
[01:22.94]The fit was perfect.
[01:24.92]John wore the coat to school the next day
[01:27.75]and came home wearing a big grin.
[01:30.03]“Did the kids like your coat?” I asked.
[01:32.61]“They loved it.” he said, carefully folding it
[01:35.29]over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat.
[01:37.83]I started calling him “Lord Chesterfield” and “The Great Gatsby.”
[01:42.50]Over the next few weeks, a change came over John.
[01:46.03]Agreement replaced contrariness, quiet,
[01:50.09]reasoned discussion replaced argument.
[01:52.61]He became more judicious, more mannerly,
[01:55.78]more thoughtful, eager to please.
[01:58.37]“Good dinner, Mom.” he would say every evening.
[02:01.79]He would generously loan his younger brother his tapes
[02:05.23]and lecture him on the niceties of behaviour;
[02:08.14]without a word of objection,
[02:10.32]he would carry in wood for the stove.
[02:12.93]One day when I suggested
[02:14.94]that he might start on homework before dinner,
[02:17.29]John—a veteran procrastinator—said,
[02:20.87]“You're right. I guess I will.”
[02:23.39]When I mentioned this incident to
[02:25.99]one of his teachers and remarked that I didn't know
[02:28.76]what caused the changes, she said laughing.
[02:31.06]“It must be his coat!” Another teacher told him
[02:34.26]she was giving him a good mark not only because
[02:37.35]he had earned it but because she liked his coat.
[02:39.89]At the library, we ran into a friend
[02:42.87]who had not seen our children in a long time,
[02:45.12]“Could this be John?” he asked,
[02:47.29]looking up to John's new height,
[02:49.31]assessing the cut of his coat and extending his hand,
[02:52.98]one gentleman to another.
[02:54.74]John and I both know we should never mistake a person's clothes
[02:58.23]for the real person within them.
[03:00.30]But there is something to be said
[03:02.24]for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see,
[03:05.11]for practising standards of excellence in thought,
[03:07.91]speech, and behaviour, and for matching
[03:11.04]what is on the inside to what is on the outside.
[03:13.97]Sometimes, watching John leave for school,
[03:17.12]I've remembered with a keen sting
[03:19.53]what it felt like to be in the eighth grade-a time
[03:22.52]when it was as easy to try on different approaches to life
[03:25.80]as it was to try on a coat. The whole world,
[03:28.99]the whole future is stretched out ahead,
[03:31.87]a vast panorama where all the doors are open.
[03:35.55]And if I were there right now,
[03:37.79]I would picture myself walking through those doors
[03:40.55]wearing my wonderful, magical coat. |