Clothes

I think sometimes about women, clothes, fashion, and modesty.

There are some hot climates where the women wear almost nothing, and other hot climates where they wear great tents from head to toe. Hm.

And yet in both climates, they seek to please their husbands, families, and God. Hm.

There are some cold climates where they…well, they all wear lotsa lotsa clothes in those climates.

There are some rainy climates like Oregon where people wear the weirdest mix of things.

There are some countries like America, a great big melting pot, in which people wear anything and everything. Ethnic and religious and stylish and fashionable and short and long and thin and heavy clothes. And I watch them all in fascination.

Some women I know seem to retreat into shapeless clothes because when they date, they want to be appreciated for their brains and their virtue, not just their bodies. Or is it because they are insecure about their physical beauty? I don’t know, I wonder.

Other women dress extremely fashionably, which makes them feel powerful in the workplace. I would know, I did this once to the umpteenth degree.

Other women dress artsy-fartsy, because all they want to do is express themselves and be different. Was I guilty of this at one time? Yikes.

Other women dress extremely trendily, always hip and down with the cool kids. They spend obscene amounts on fast fashion, instead of saving their money and giving some of that to the poor.

Nuns are a fun case study: they wear veils to show that they are the brides of Christ, a simple tunic, and a scapular, which is basically an apron. And they have about three changes of clothes. They are entirely focused on God. And I’ve heard the long skirts are very breezy and keep them cool in summer.

I wear skirts a lot in summer when I don’t have time for shopping and for goodness sakes, shorts are so annoying and difficult to fit. A drawstring A-line skirt is really just paradise, because it covers a multitude of sins, er, fat, and is easily adjustable when you change weight, and can be real cool.

I sometimes think that modesty and virtue is really about the way you carry yourself and your intentions and the societal norms in which you find yourself.

Why don’t you wear a purity ring? Baby me asked one older sister, as I thought about two of my other older sisters who did.

Well, I just don’t feel the need to wear jewelry for it. It’s more about how I act toward people.