I guess that I started dressing this way over a period of a few years. Brown is my favorite color and my wife can attest to that.....just about any shade of brown. In all my shirts I simply look for a XXL tag. Now my size is more of an XL but I like the shirt sleeves real loose with maybe a six or eight inch cuff. I'm not really particular about the color of my knee high stockings held up by black garters at the bottoms of my baggy britches which are in turn held up by a leather belt with a big buckle. I like buckles! I'll cover the shirt with a tight fitting button-down vest and then wear a more colorful doublet, maybe blue, over it. You know what a doublet is don't you? It's kind of like an outer vest that a hunter might wear while rabbit hunting. Any old brown leather shoes will do....as long as there is a big buckle on them. I then like to fasten a fluffy ruff around my neck. You know....like the Dutch Masters used to wear. And everything is topped off with a tall, wide brimmed hat with a leather strap and big buckle on it. Give me my cape to cover my Bible from the rain, and a cane, and I'm ready to go. So...this is what I look like.....
In reality... my thoughts, opinions and habits over the period of a few years seem to sway towards these men that were given the derisive sobriquet...Puritans. In the pietistic early days of my Christian walk I refrained from beer and tobacco. I had a vision of what meek was supposed to be and tried to be such but it wasn't my personality. I struggled with this for a while until I saw that meekness was not necessarily in the tone of your voice or what one imbibed or didn't imbibe. Meekness was a deeper attribute, one that viewed others as more important than oneself. A psychologist today might want to cure you of it but this fit my personality.
Much of my reading was Puritan literature and it was humbling to say the least. Their knowledge made mine seem undetectable. Their dedication made me feel lazy, and their love for one another transcended the temporal that we cue in on today. They were immovable in defense of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in His written Word to us. They were ideal citizens, fathers and mothers. They laughed one moment but could be as serious as a dead rat the next. They loved their beer and laughter. They did not care what anyone thought of them, only what their Lord and Savior thought of them. This life was a pilgrimage to them...and it was something they were good at.
I would never....ever....try to emulate them, and I could not have if I tried, but as time passed I saw vague similarities in my thinking...not nearly as honorable or true....but just similarities. I noticed some of this in my own writing, for I can try my best at humor in one post, and in the next write of the awesome immutable majesty of God. I don't see a contradiction here, in fact it seems so natural to enjoy life one moment yet be sober as a pilot the next. I can laugh and converse with a friend one moment and then when we part... pull out my Bible and become transfixed in awe as I read of the glory due God the Father and His Son and His Holy Spirit! I felt that I needed to write this post, for often I thought that the reader might see this odd mixture and wonder how it could be. Whether I have explained it adequately I don't know but at least I gave an attempt. Thank-you for your indulgence.
note: The sculpture is Augustus Saint-Gaudens....The Puritan!
