Staying Power #153: "It's Time Again for THAT"

Got my marker ready!

Nov 05, 2023

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Nudged by our first dusting of snow and wind chills of 15°F, I just pulled my winter coat out of the closet. Made of quilted goose down, it reaches below my knees. It’s guaranteed to keep a body warm down to -40°F.

This bright-red coat warms me in winter not only because of what it’s made from but also because of what it’s covered with: countless signatures, all scribbled in black or silver ink. People have signed my coat in at least eight languages besides English, from Arabic to Sanskrit to Dakota to Chinese. Most of the signers have been complete strangers to me. What they’ve had in common is a hunger to belong. A desire for community.

All this coat-signing began twelve years ago. That August, in anticipation of winter, I told Jihong that I was ready to shell out the money for a serious coat. Having moved to South Dakota nearly a dozen years before, I’d grown weary of being bone-cold from November until March.

I soon found the perfect coat online, in cardinal red. (Color, too, can help keep you warm in winter.) The coat arrived at my door only two days later. I stuffed it into my closet with a satisfied smile and promptly forgot about it.

Then, in October, I stumbled onto “Everybody,” a poem by Marie Sheppard Williams. The narrator of the poem tells how she was standing at a bus stop one day, when a seemingly poor (perhaps homeless) man asked her to sign his “dirty canvas coat.” The coat was covered in signatures. He held out his pen to her, saying, “I’m trying to get everybody.” As the narrator signed one of the pockets, she was reminded of a vital fact: “I am one of everybody.”

That year, at our first snow of the season, I knew what I had to do. I took out my new coat and laid it across the family table. With a huge black marker, I blazoned these words across its back:

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published


       The “I AM PART OF EVERYBODY” coat—
                            Sign if you believe!

I was grinning now. (Better watch out for poetry. It can make you do crazy things. It can be downright dangerous.)

Son Nathan, then a giggling nine-year-old, was the first person to autograph my coat. The next was a woman friend. She was half laughing, half chiding, as she inscribed her name.

“What would your mother say,” she exclaimed, “if she knew you were ruining a brand-new coat?”

As I told my friend then, and many others since, my coat becomes more valuable, not less, with each signature added. People have autographed it in check-out lines, on street corners, in airports, in restaurants, in classrooms and auditoriums. An introvert by nature, I rarely invite them to sign. I wait for them to ask. When they do, I smile and pull a marker from my deep, red pocket.

Once, on a flight to Washington, DC, I was sitting beside a little girl from China. When she signed my coat, she expressed concern through an interpreter that someday it might be too crowded for any more signatures.

Laughing, I flipped the coat over to reveal its lining, as yet untouched. Her eyes grew wide and bright.

“Don’t worry!” I said, through the interpreter. “We can fit the entire world on this coat!”

I truly believe that. We can make enough room for everybody.

Through all the winters I’ve worn this coat, I’ve felt as though I were carrying the world on my back, in a good way. I’ve hoped that everybody who signed felt, at least for one happy moment, that they belong. That their life is bigger than themselves. That nobody has to be all alone, out in the cold.

Would you like to “sign” my coat?

If you, too, believe in the power of community . . . if you believe that what is good for you is bound up with what is good for others . . . I’d be happy to inscribe your name on my coat. (If you’ve “signed” in the past, you’re all set!)

Here’s what to do . . .

Click the button below to send me an email. (If the button doesn’t work for you, my address is phyllis@phylliscoledai.com.)
Tell me how you’d like your name to appear.
After adding your name to the coat, I’ll email you a photo of it to remind you that you are, indeed, one of everybody and that I’m happy to carry you on my back. (Please be patient, as it might take me a while to answer requests. Watch in case my email message goes to spam.)
Have a friend who might also want to add their name? Share this post with them! The whole world’s invited!

Add my name!

The Gentle Nudge

Join other Rafters this week . . .

WEDNESDAY: Creatives’ Coffee (Zoom, 4:00-5:30PM Central, at this link)
THURSDAY: Poetry Pick-Me-Up (Zoom, 12:00-1:00PM Central, at this link)

View the full Raft calendar.

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