Work of Art

This is the sort of thing I’m drawn to lately:

I absolutely LOVED the costumes in “True Grit,” which I saw this afternoon. Here’s the wonderful Hallee Steinfeld as Mattie,

LOVE the hat! LOVE the belted coat!

So, you know, I find it so interesting when we’re strongly drawn to certain styles. It has been a LOOOOONG winter here in New England (and we ain’t over it yet!) and I have been injecting some fun into my life by choosing outfits with some care, mixing and matching things that I’ve never worn together before, and making some effort to not just slog over to church in any old thing.

One hilarious outcome of one of my more eccentric fashion choices lately is that my church ladies knitting group and I are knitting up tons of wristlets to sell at the fall fair next year!! And all this because I fell in love with wristlets and one of you sent me these as a gift recently:
These add just a little tiny bit of Goth with super dark, short fingernails to an otherwise totally tailored outfit of charcoal or black sweater and black trousers and boots. Plus, they keep my arms warm!

Today I am wearing that chambray dress pictured above (Old Navy) with black leggings and knee-high black and white plaid rainboots, a black zip-up sweater, silver hoops and hair pulled up in a messy bun. It’s my day off and a pal and I spent the day at the cinema. But I would swap the zip-up sweater for something a bit more structured and wear the same thing to the office. And I will wear that dress with the black boots also pictured above (John Fluevog) like crazy. That’s my new thing. Boots with skirts.

I don’t own all the items pictured above, it’s just a general sense of stuff I love lately. I am very interested in how it happens that we evolve a certain look for certain periods in our lives.

Mostly I bring this up because I want this blog to encourage you to think about your look and to find one that expresses something about you that’s more than “I am wearing clothes to cover my body because I wold get arrested if I didn’t cover my body; other than that, I don’t think a damned thing about it.”

It’s about making of our lives a work of art for God – just as intentionally as we would paint a picture or build a cathedral or compose an anthem. This is something that you do independently of, although in conversation with, your role as an ordained clergy person.

What happens is that when we go into seminary or get ordained, we put away the “childish things” like caring about clothes and become these de-sexed, super-frumps. Right? We do this because of the old-school mentality some of us still buy into that says you can’t look like someone interesting, unique and creative (not to mention intentionally attractive, let alone SEXY) and be a minister. We become subsumed in our role and try to be as generic as possible. Isn’t that bizarre? When we should be preparing ourselves for public life as people of tremendous vision and vitality, we become the visual equivalent of oatmeal.

Let me ask you this: are you trying to write generic sermons? Of course not! Do you think bringing an oatmeal self to ministry is a good thing? Of course not! Do you believe that it serves the Lord or your people to shrink into some blancmange persona? It doesn’t. It may placate some super-critical traditionalists, but since when are we called to do that? Would you let those same super-critical traditionalists keep you from trying something creative, new and innovative in worship? I certainly hope not.
Don’t let them dictate your appearance, either.

Here’s an interesting observation. Last week I wanted to preach a sermon that was a bit of a barn-burner, you know? I was thinking about it all week, and also all week I also made an effort to wear something that I felt excited about (darlings, when I tell you that I have been living in sweaters, pants and boots for many freezing weeks, please believe me!) every day. I accessorized. I paid attention. I played with make-up and perfume. I took bubble baths and got a massage. I organized my jewelry drawer and got out and wore pins that I haven’t seen in years, and I got a little bit stylin’.

When it came time to finally commit my sermon to paper on Saturday (I often write my sermons on Thursdays but I had meetings in the city on both Thursday and Friday last week and a funeral on Saturday morning— hence, last minute sermon-writing!), I nevertheless felt centered, confident and connected to myself, my congregation and to my work with them in a very solid and positive way. I wrote an honest and challenging sermon that turned out to be very well-received, generated a great conversation. When I met a group of parishioners on Monday for lunch, they said, “You were really on your game yesterday!” I thought about why that was and it occurred to me that while most of my passion and clarity came from my relationship with them, my ability to have fun with the sermon and to give it with joy and confidence came from my relationship with myself. And that some of that feeling really grounded and good actually came from — believe it or not — taking extra care in choosing outfits that would express my spirit and sense of fun more than the usual sweater and pair of slacks.

Dressing yourself as you would create a work of art puts you in touch with yourself in a different way than does prayer, or exercise, or journaling. All those other forms of self-care are lovely and healthful, but putting together a real “look” every day is a form of self-care that begins with an interior focus and becomes exterior expression. I love that. It’s a little act of transformation: Now let me add that long pink scarf, and that Mexican headband with all the purple… no, wait… that flowy earth-colors scarf and the headband, and oh WOW, my old paisley skirt looks so cool with this whole thing, these colors are amazing, and these boots make me so happy and I can stand all day and teach that class in them, and I am SO READY for this day. This is going to be a beautiful day. I am so glad I took the time to get more beautiful to greet this beautiful day.

I find that lately, creating something of beauty intentionally every day is helping me endure the brutality of the news, the despair that comes with all the renewed misogyny coming out of our political and wider culture, my anger and frustration over the class war in the U.S., and the mounting evidence that we have really screwed up our planet and should expect more “natural” disasters from climate change. I find that I cannot have an oatmeal attitude toward my visual reality and show up with all the energy, passion and vitality that these times require of us.

So I’m not sure what’s going on with me and my cowboy boots and 19th century long coats and my wristlets and stuff, but that doesn’t matter. I just know that whether it’s “fashion” or not, it feels like me. And my dear pigeons, in the end that’s what I really want to say to you: you don’t have to be “fashionable!” What the heck does that mean, anyway, and who can afford it? But I want for you to be a work of art. An individual work of art, re-created every day to make an impression not just on other people, but on yourself before you even walk out the door.