Bar scene from The Best Years Of Our Lives. Yes, they are supposed to be at a bar, and at sort of a blue collar bar at that.
This is an interesting podcast, by two priests, on dress at Mass on Sunday:
SUNDAY BEST
We've covered this topic before, and in other context, we note. Consider:
Declined Sartorial Standards. Have we gone too informal?
A Nation of Slobs
Let alone the plethora of related posts below:
So what of this?
Let me start off by noting that this is't the first time I've heard Catholic clerics address this (I've never heard Protestant ones address this, but as we've noted many times before, Protestants tend to dress up for Church, at least by way of my limited observation. Catholics, well, it's mixed.
And let me say that I"m one who is pretty bad about not doing so.
For years and years, I tend not to shave on the weekends. I probably ought to just grow a beard, as I don't like shaving, but at this point, it'd be too much of a shock and I'd look like a short, not too fat, Santa Claus. When I was young, my beard was a bunch of different colors, brown, blond, red, etc., reflecting no doubt my wild Hibernian heritage. People don't think of humans having hair coloration like a Calico cat, but I used to.
I've had a heavy mustache since my 20s. It was brown with red and blond streaks, but not enough to notice unless you looked really close up.
Now it's gray.
That is no doubt what my beard would also be. The hair on my head isn't yet.
Anyhow, when I was a college student, I'd rarely shave every day. In retrospect, I probably should have as looking like Yassir Arafat, in the pre stubble as fashionable days, isn't a cool look. I had to start shaving at age 13, and I've just never cared for it much.
I've started to shave on most Sundays, however, recently. And before listening to this podcast.
The one time I've heard a priest orally reference this before was at Mass, during the summer. A visiting Priest made a pointed comment about people showing up in shorts, and indeed, people did, and do. One extremely devout young man down at the downtown parish seems to only own shorts, and a large collection of religiously themed t-shirts. I'm sure that his dress should not be of concern.
And in a slight way, I think this topic may have a jump the shark aspect to it. It was really in the 80s when dress went too far, and you'd see t-shirts with rude comments and the like. There was a popular "Big Johnson" line of t-shirts that I can distinctly recall somebody showing up to Mass at.
I don't see that anymore. Indeed, the younger people at Mass are almost never dressed t-shirt fashion. They are often dressed informally, but pretty nicely.
In fact, they dress nicer than I do.
I started really noticing that the Sunday before last, which was also before I heard this podcast. I wasn't feeling great, quite frankly, and didn't shave. I don't recall what shirt I was wearing, but I've been getting a bit self-conscious about my dress at Mass in general and so took note, at some point, of what I was wearing. I'm not sure why I took note, but in part it's because the men I see sitting at the back of the Church are all dressed better than me, save for one guy who is retired and who shared my profession, whose always super casually dressed, and a few genuine quite old men who are probably well past the point where they care much about dress in general. One of those guys wears a BDU M65 Field Jacket to every Mass in the winter, which now really stands out.
I've worn M64s to Mass lots of time, when I was younger, as that was the coat I had. When I was a National Guardsman and living in Laramie, it was often my go-to coat. I'm sure it wasn't supposed to be, but it was.
Anyhow, soon after Mass started I noticed that my Carhartt coat, which I was wearing, is really a mess. The sleeves are fraying, and it has a blood stain on the front I hadn't previously noticed. It's so bad, in general, that I really need to replace it or retire it exclusively to working cows or hunting. For that matter, even if I do restrict its use, I need a new one.
The clerical podcasters in this podcast urge people to basically up their game at Mass on the basis that clothing matters. And indeed, as I've noted before, it does. They urge people to dress one step up from what they do at work.
They're centered in Denver, which has retained a higher dress standard than Central Wyoming. It always had one. Even now, when I go into Denver for work, I'll walk up 16th Street and notice men headed to their offices in suits and ties, or sports coats and ties, with overcoats and occasionally the odd Fedora. In Houston, recently, I noticed that male lawyers really turn out.
Oddly, however, I've also noticed that on Teams/Zoom, even at official functions, this is less so. I was in an administrative hearing the other day where I was the only one in jacket and tie. And I've been in court proceedings, on Teams, where I'm the only one with a tie.
Frankly, if I were the judge, which I will never be, I'd make a point of that to a lawyer without a tie. As in "Mr. X, before you address the court, it appears that you failed to finish dressing. Do you want me to pause for a couple of minutes while you put on your tie?". If the answer came back that he didn't have one with him, the next line would be; "Well, rules of courtroom decorum apply even here. We'll note your failure and decline to accept any statement to the Court. Please pay the Court $50.00 for being in contempt and make sure you are properly dressed next time."
Anyhow, advice of the clerical gentlemen notwithstanding, I'm not going to up my game from work. I am going to up my game at work, however, as recently I've been really lazy about it unless I know I have an official function to go to. I've been back in my office with Levi 501s.
Slacking pretty heavily there.
And I do need to up my game a bit on Sunday, while remembering where I live.
The podcast mentions that a bit, but only a bit. You do have to remember where you are.
As I've noted quite a few times, in my region of the Rocky Mountain West, really dressing up for Mass was always a Protestant thing. It's probably because there were so many Irish Catholic Sheep Ranchers, Mexican Sheep Herders, and oilfield workers that this was the reason. People came clean, but as they were, consistent with their status, and that's continued.
And that's why in part I disagree a bit with the pod's advice. We are the publicans and the sinners, and we're there. I don't think a person should dress in appropriately, but they can come as they are, in my view.
In terms of coming as they are, there have been some interesting trends. One is the rise of the Trads and the Rad Trads, which I've mentioned quite a few times before. The Mantila Girls have a certain look to them, and its very conservative. It's charming also, and I'm not criticizing them. I'm glad their doing that.
Some jacket and ties, or at least ties, are appearing, and in some cases I don't know what to make of that, in part because I've long known some of the so clad, and their dress has really evolved. Most of them are Trads,and that explains it, but they were pretty Trady 20 years ago. Their dress has evolved to more conservative as the young Church itself has become more conservative. They're not young, however, and taking up that sort of dress, if you didn't naturally affect it earlier, looks a bit odd. They don't really look like they know where they are, or what their station is.
So I guess there's a middle ground.
At any rate, the pod is correct for certain that clothes do matter. They do send a message. I've been dressing outside of my vocation for months and need to address it. Why a person would do that is a topic for some other time.
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