Hi darlings. Dawn submitted this terrific comment last week that I think deserves wider attention and consideration. She wrote,
During recent air travel, I have been reminded of the phenomenon of flight attendants and pilots always looking polished and put together. Shirts and pants/skirts are pressed and clean. Hair is combed and well-styled with no frizzies or flyaways. Makeup is tasteful and well-applied. Flight attendants typically wear a few pieces of jewelry, a well-placed hair accessory, a well-tied scarf.
If I boarded a plane with an unkempt, sloppy, or just ho-hum looking flight attendant or pilot, I might be a little worried. Are they not at the top of their game? Are they tired? Did they not have enough time to prepare and get their head in the game?
What kind of parallels we might draw between the vocations of ministry and air travel and how employees of each type present themselves to the world? Just wondering…
Great points, Dawn! What a lot of good analogies to play with here! Like a flight attendant, a minister wants to project NON-ANXIOUS presence, right? Because when the aircraft starts bumping along and folks surreptitiously glance at the flight attendants, what are they looking for? Reassurance. Evidence that everything is okay. Placid expressions when the plane suddenly loses altitude and you go flying up in the air and let out a whoop/scream, as PeaceBang did during a flight to Louisville last summer. Dressing carefully and looking polished greatly contributes to that sense of having it all together, being the trusted professional who has been through this before and will get everyone safely on the ground. The fact is, pigeons, just taking the time to go through a mindful process of getting dressed and groomed is a powerfully grounding act. As you get ready, you integrate mind, body and spirit.
Clean, pressed, groomed, accessorized and together-looking people project trustworthiness. Like it or not, it’s true. Polished appearance does not guarantee trustworthiness, but it projects it. Use that on your behalf!
Like a flight attendant, a minister is partly there to serve, partly there to guide (“Sir, please take your seat”) and partly there to get people to a safe place in the event of a crisis — even death. On February 8, 1997, I went before our Ministerial Fellowship Committee to be interviewed for fellowship in the Unitarian Universalist ministry. I was to preach a 10-minute sermon and — I just remembered this! — and I preached mine on how religious community and spiritual practice prepare us (or should) for being people who know what to say and do in a crashing plane. That wasn’t the whole sermon but it was the illustration. It was a pretty good homily, I think, and that was before 9/11 so my scenario seemed pretty unlikely.
How awful that it seems so much more likely now.
Thank you, Dawn, for a great comment. Our careful attention to grooming, comportment and beauty is not just about vanity or aesthetics. It is about projecting trustworthiness and living more fully into that trust that has been bestowed upon us.
Please return your seatbacks to their upright and locked position. We’ll be landing shortly.
Not much to say but THANK YOU for this!
Been a little obsessed of late, trying to defrump and up my game and I am exhausted by the process and yesterday had a moment of why am I bothering, this is too hard and am I veering into self absorption rather than self care?
Your post reminds me why I am bothering. To be grounded and ready.
Thank you!
love from here [Love back to you from here, baby doll. It’s hard. Some days I can’t even wash my hair, which is why God invented dry shampoo.- PB]
And thank you PB for always reminding us to check and cross check in preparation for landing…whether that landing is an important meeting, official function, judicatory event, or coffee with friends.
Kathleen, your experience sounds familiar! Keep trying; I will too 🙂