Patches on Patches

Piles.

I'm the type of person who makes piles.

I don't necessarily like it, but I do it nonetheless.

I met a man on my mission who was very clean and organized. In talking with him, he shared his technique—he called it the one touch rule. Knowing his propensity for piles, he adopted a rule where if he touched an item (piece of paper, book, etc.) one time, he was responsible for putting it away when finished with it. According to his self-imposed rule, he was not allowed to make piles of things to get to later—he had to put the thing away.

Thinking it was a great idea, I resolved to do the same thing.

Maybe I should re-resolve.

...

Maryann asked me about a pile of clothes I had stacked out of place in our closet. I reported that they were shorts or pants that needed patching because they had either worn holes or snagged on something, leaving a rent. After being reminded that they had been there for quite some time, I decided to [finally] take care of them.

As I prepared to apply the iron-on patches, I saw that most of the items had already been patched before, and that the new holes were where the patch met the original material. This is the literal fulfillment of Matt. 9:16:

No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.

I had to make a decision: should I go against the clothes/wine instructions in Matthew (9:16-17), or should I apply the Hinckley motto: Fix it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without.

I chose the latter.

Silly as I felt ironing an iron-on patch on an iron-on patch, I was happy to try to stretch things a bit farther. Of course, my clothes do look like they're falling apart, with visible rectangles on the knees from the multiple patches, but I take comfort knowing that President Hinckley would be pleased.

I'm threadbare, but I'm happy. I just hope my clothes don't disintegrate—at least not in public.

Our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey (Joshua 9:13).