Uche's Tales

The Golden Eagle

Shirts, pants, jackets, hoodies, etc. All the fancy clothes in the world, and I couldn't care less about one. The amount of attire in my "wardrobe" is enough to fit a Great Dane's doghouse. Though my taste/amount in clothing is limited, there are a few that hold a fond place in my heart. And chest. And... basically the rest of my upper body. One so especially is a moss green t-shirt with an Aztec-styled eagle in the upper center. To top it off, the outline of said eagle was covered head to toe -- or talon -- with gold embroidery, via small beads.

The t-shirt exuded a wild presence, with a hint of regality to compliment it. It was as both primal and prestigious as the real-life animal I named it after. Every time I put it on, I get a soothing, silky feel of the whole thing. It's like being dressed in the royal garments of ancient Egypt. The gold embroidery was honestly my favorite part; every time I stroked my hand across my chest, I felt near hundreds of tiny blunt metals upon my fingertips. Each stroke created a vibration, a brief massage that put my mind at ease. Unfortunately, those fingertip massaging days are long gone. As time passed, bit by bit of the gold beads would snap off from the eagle's design. I think I might've been stroking them too much, but I still blame age all the same. It was almost as if the eagle was molting with each passing year of my life. About a decade later, the Aztec-styled bird would be stripped of its regal identity.

Despite it now just being a black outline, I still treasure this t-shirt as one my many personal favorites. Call me crazy -- if you haven't already -- but I believe the eagle and I share quite a lot in common. We're both determined, unruly creatures with the freedom to roam how we please. But as we aged, each loss of gold was a new gain in humbleness and self-realization. The eagle doesn't need gold to define what it is -- it's still an eagle. And mirroring that, I don't need fancy clothes to define who I am -- I'm still me.