No matter what you wear…

I was recently reminded of a student who visited us about five years ago in the early spring.

We were playing the Survival Game up in Aspen forest.  About half way through the game she came up to her teachers and I complaining of cold feet.  As she took off her rubber boots a mini-avalanche of icy-snow came tumbling out.  Her very thin ankle socks were soaked.

We offered the student some dry boots and socks which she promptly turned down.  She insisted that her boots were insulated.

I’ve owned several pairs of insulated rubber boots.  All of them have had the removable liner.  What the student was calling “insulation” was a burlap-like material that gave the boot their shape.

After asking some questions and carefully listening to her answers we were able to determine the footwear we offered wasn’t “hip and with it”.  The student was worried about how she looked instead of worrying about her health.

In the end, it took an almost Herculean effort, but the teacher and I were eventually able to convince the student to try the heavy duty socks and insulated boots.  Begrudgingly she donned the, admittedly, ugly boot and rejoined the activity.

Afterwards we offered to let her swap our ugly boots for her prettier ones.  She decided that having warm and dry feet was more important than looking good.

Fast-forward to last week.

A bunch of the staff came over to my cabin to enjoy some down time.  While watching some television one of them found my Dad’s copy of Paul Dickson’s “The New Official Rules”.  As the book was passed from person-to-person we discovered Doris’s Law of Looks, which summarizes the importance to dressing for the weather:  No matter what you wear, you will not look good if you look cold.

The next day, it was -30C… before the wind-chill.  And I looked FABULOUS!