Tuesday, September 15, 2020 Style

As soon as I saw this guy, I knew I had to get a photo. He was in a nice isolated spot, so I got my camera ready and…whoops, he was on the move. Apologies to the other people in the photo who shall remain nameless because I have no idea who they are.

What would it be like to be so free as to feel unselfconscious about wearing this kind of spectacular getup? The guy had style and he knew it. He walked with confidence. I rather admired the fellow; his clothing and bearing attracted attention and he received it as his due.

I think I was in junior high school before it slowly dawned on me that there was such a thing as style and that I clearly didn’t have it. At that age, however, you don’t want to stick out, you want to blend in, like style in reverse. Bell bottoms had emerged onto the fashion scene as a scourge and a blight, but since everyone else had them, they appeared as shining lights of acceptance and popularity to me. My parents weren’t keen on spending money on clothes I didn’t really need (kudos to them in retrospect), so I saved up my babysitting money and bought my first set of bell bottoms: navy blue and white paisley, as I recall. Finally – I could hold my head up high among my peers!

Well, not so fast. The first washing shrunk them and the next thing I knew, someone was calling out loudly in the hallway, “Look at that girl wearing the high-water pants!” Wondering what high-water pants were, I turned around to see who they were pointing at and with great embarrassment realized it was me. Kids are cruel, aren’t they? It all added up on the building-character side of the ledger for me as I learned the folly of trying to fit in when the rules were always changing.

I still like to fit in, mostly – I’m not much of a trend setter in the fashion realm (or any other realm). But I’d like to think that having style transcends the world of clothing. Maybe it has more to do with being comfortable and confident with who you are and being able to wear that.

“God sees not as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.