From time to time, you’ll hear someone vouch for another person’s character by saying the person would “give you the shirt off his/her back.”
I had figured this whole “shirt off his/her back” concept was just a figure of speech. I’d never seen someone actually ask, let alone accept, the proposition of a one-sided shirt exchange.
This all came tumbling down a few weeks ago, when my girlfriend gave her shirt to a middle-aged Dutch man while standing on the edge of a 3,200-foot tall sheer cliff in California. And, in that moment, I had a better understanding of what people mean when they say anything is possible.
At 7,214 feet above sea level, Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park offers a sweeping view of some of the park’s most famous landmarks, including Yosemite Falls and Half Dome. Some people consider the viewpoint an excellent place to relax and reflect. I’d like to meet those people.
What I found during a visit in early June, instead, was the Yosemite version of a clown car: dozens of tourists stuffing themselves into precarious positions, all at the same time. One wrong turn meant a decision between walking off a cliff or stuffing your face into a sweating stranger’s armpit.
The whole experience reaffirmed my view that if you give a man a camera, he’ll do things no sane person would do. Of course, with camera in hand, I gladly rushed toward the fray at Glacier Point.
My girlfriend, though, didn’t have the chance. She had been intercepted by a friendly tourist from Holland who wanted to discuss her tank top. The shirt, inspired by the TV show “Breaking Bad,” featured a simple pencil drawing of actor Bryan Cranston’s face and the word “Heisenberg.”
“Do you know who that is?” the man said.
“Heisenberg, from the show ‘Breaking Bad,’” my girlfriend said.
“Yes!” the man rejoiced, nearly leaping off the cliff. “I am from Holland. Would you believe no one in Holland knows who Heisenberg is?”
From there, he continued, unable to hide his enthusiasm.
“I’d like to buy your shirt. Could I do that?”
The man’s request did not come across as creepy, despite the fact he really, really wanted a gently used women’s tank top.
Being a newspaperman, I did what I do best: watched from afar and acted skeptical. As the transaction took place, I couldn’t help but think, “The Internet allows anyone with a connection to access all of the world’s information. But, apparently, if you live in the Netherlands, it does not allow you to buy ‘Breaking Bad’ apparel.”
My girlfriend, on the other hand, handled the situation with grace. She let the man from Holland have her shirt, and did it with a smile.
Elated, he gave her a hug, and ran to his wife, shirt in hand. The woman put it on, and together they took pictures of themselves at Glacier Point. The man said he couldn’t wait to tell his son about the shirt.
A 20-something woman with pink hair, upon seeing the exchange, stopped dangling her legs off the edge of Glacier Point. She balanced herself on a sign that read something like, “Do not dangle your legs off the crumbling rock ledge. You could die,” and turned toward my girlfriend.
“That was really cool of you,” she said.
My cool girlfriend and I hiked down from Glacier Point later; she in a black tank top that previously served as an undershirt. I, meanwhile, didn’t think much about what happened once it had passed. There were hikes to complete, sights to see, boxes left to check.
But, in the weeks since my trip, my thoughts keep floating back to the Glacier Point Shirt Exchange. And to the time I taught a senior citizen from Chile how to take a selfie—while riding on the outside of a moving cable car in San Francisco. Or how someone stole my luggage at San Francisco International Airport. And then, a day later, returned it undisturbed.
I had spent months researching, planning, mapping, reserving the perfect California vacation. Yet, in the end, it wasn’t the sights and attractions that stuck with me, no matter how amazing they were. It’s the unexpected that has had a lasting effect.
During a stop in the San Francisco neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury, my girlfriend and I happened upon a hippie giving a speech. After attempting to make a conch-shell horn sound with his mouth, he looked at the crowd, took a breath and said, “Don’t panic, keep it organic.”
There’s something to that message, even if as a person who likes to know what’s next, I struggle to accept the concept.
But I’m working on it because I’ve learned a lot of good can come from surprises.
Not the least being the affirmation that my girlfriend is such a great person, she’d give you the shirt off her back.
