When I left for Michigan back in December I was trying to pack pretty light. I had the teamwork back jammed full of books and underwear and a laptop case I was carrying separate. I thought through what I was going to take for nearly a month to be spent in the wintery wonderland that is west Michigan. I remember holding my deodorant in my hand and thinking-to bulky. So once I got to my parents place I quickly looked around the first day for a deodorant stick that would meet the demand of my stinky body. I didn’t choose to go to the store for my looking ventures rather I went into my sister’s room when she was away at school and my mom’s room while see was at work. They using Ban, which in my considerations is a nueter brand of deodorant. I was reminded of my youth pastor growing up, who gave me my first tent, and how he had stumbled across a box of Secret UltraDry-which he used for years. He would say, “strong enough for a man, right?” Then we would say, “yeah greg but it is made for a woman.”
Anyway I say all of this because I think it is very interesting what kind of smells we attribute to certain individuals. And beyond smells the ethos we assign others. The individual is unaware in many ways. You have a sense of how others are different than you before you have a sense of how you share all sorts of things. I have met people that have frustrated me-moving away from smell here- but after several encounters I find we are so similar or better connected than I had ever thought. The same is true in the other direction. Smells rest at the surface of the embodiment of ourselves but they have a lot to say about a person’s story. I wear patchouli oil because I want to smell like dirt because this (the outdoors) is where I am most comfortable or alive. So what is your smell? The odor of your life…
