EXCERPT FROM THE
PROPHET
AND the weaver said, Speak to us of
Clothes.
And he answered:
Your clothes conceal much of your
beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.
And though you seek
in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness
and a chain.
Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with
more of your skin and less of your raiment, For the breath of life
is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.
Some of
you say, "It is the north wind who has woven the clothes we
wear."
And I say, Ay, it was the north wind, But shame was his
loom, and the soften- ing of the sinews was his thread.
And when
his work was done he laughed in the forest.
Forget not that
modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean.
And when
the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a
fouling of the mind?
And forget not that the earth delights
to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your
hair.
by Kahlil Gibran
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