This scarf made and worn to reflect on those in our lives who embody loyalty through and through. For me, someone I call Mason. 

Mason brings to mind a unique kind of loyalty. In some ways it's strangely fickle. He once decided he wasn't going to mail anything through the post office ever again; I think maybe a movie he ordered had arrived late or something like that. We used to joke that he was arbitrarily loyal when he decided to stop eating a certain color of Skittles, because the company that produced the dye they used didn’t support the sports team he favored.

But there are things Mason has been very loyal to. Admirably loyal. Things like sports teams, sure. But more admirable is that when it comes to developing relationships, Mason plays a very long game; he makes an investment in people with very little interest for ever cashing in. I've always gotten the sense that with Mason it's the relationship itself that matters. This is a statement that gets tossed around often sometimes, but I've seen Mason form truly diehard loyalties to concepts and ventures all because of someone he trusts' association with it, because of his relationship with someone who just happens to be near it. It's the relationship that matters. More than even the idea.

We instinctively call to mind why this might not always be a good thing; it's all too easy to let unquestionable loyalty blind us to new insight, new information, new opportunities. I still feel that way a lot of the time. But Mason has allowed me to think that maybe, just maybe, there's something incredibly powerful about finding something to care for intensely, irrevocably. Maybe this is the only way big, important things ever really come to life. Perhaps we can all find something to care about so profoundly, something important enough to be absolutely loyal to.