At the beginning of August, we made the annual trip to Sears, Montgomery Ward, and Porteous Mitchell to pick out clothes and shoes. What we couldn’t find in stores, we found in the pages of the Sears catalog. Just about everyone we know did the same, although the choice of stores might vary. Most everyone got at least one new outfit and a new pair of shoes for the first day of school; after that would come the outgrown hand-me-downs from older siblings. That new outfit heralded the new school year just as much as a new home room and a new grade level.
School shopping is still alive and well; the local Target is full of families preparing for the upcoming year. So is the local LLBean – backpacks and water bottles. But a new outfit for the first day of school isn’t as big a deal – people buy new clothes throughout the year and in larger quantities than in the ’60’s and ’70’s.
I don’t think it’s a bad thing that a new school outfit is no longer a must-have. It must have been an awful way to begin the year for the children who didn’t have them, and heart-breaking for the parents who couldn’t provide them. That doesn’t mean there aren’t judgements made about clothes: now, it’s the designer label rather than the newness that matters. No matter the era, some way of separating those with more than enough from those with enough from those with not enough is in place.
Years ago, when talking with a guest about living into higher levels of compassion and spirituality, Oprah Winfrey remarked that she liked to visit those upper levels of spirituality for tea, but would choose to live on a lower level – because the wardrobe was better there, and she didn’t want to give that up. It got a laugh, of course, but a slightly uncomfortable one.
The first day outfit in elementary school, the team or work uniform, the gowns worn to mark advanced degrees earned, the stoles to mark ordination; all are outward signs of intellectual accomplishment or requirements fulfilled. Is it when we no longer need these, when we put these aside, that we walk through the doors of the house of wisdom and love, comfortable in our own skin and ready to learn?
