What's in a Name

 

When I was a youngster and in school, the school had a dress code, and the boys were required to wear a white shirt and black tie every day.  Because it was the rule, we never thought much about it.  It “just was” what we had to do.  Looking back, I can see that rule had many benefits, among which was our lack of envy over what someone else was wearing --- or not wearing.  No one wore expensively rich clothes, or extremely poor clothes, to reflect their financial background.  It was one less thing for children to worry about in school. 

Envy is not considered a sin anymore by our culture; it is promoted like a virtue.  It is promoted as a way “to move you forward,” to encourage you to do better things, “like those rich people do.”  What is rarely spoken of, however, is that everyone is not able to move forward.  Many lack the intelligence, the looks, or the money to “do better things.”  And envy only creates sadness for some and their situation, a depression which is now so common in our culture.  And envy encourages further sinful actions to try to make happen what we lack the ability to virtuously make happen.  We lie, we cheat, we steal, to be like the others whom we envy. 

We can change our life situation.  I was taught as a youngster: you can have anything you want, if you just go out and work for it.  That “Protestant work ethic” as it was sometimes called, limited what I strove to achieve to what I knew I could achieve with my talents and abilities. 

I don’t recall that I ever had much envy of anyone else or their situation in life.  And in recent years I find that I expect even less for myself.  I am easily content with my life’s situation and, if anything, worry more about using my life as God would wish, and being the person He created me to be.  Recently, I was reminded of this situation when I took some clothes to be cleaned.

I spilled some juice on my sport coat on last week and so took the coat to the cleaners the next day --- but the stores I knew of were now closed, as were a couple of others I was aware of.  I called a friend who thought there was one at a particular intersection in town, and when I went there, I found “OK Cleaners”.  The “OK” on the sign seemed almost hand-written, and the small, plain store was run by an immigrant family.  In addition to my coat cleaning need, I also took some pants which needed shortening (I’m growing smaller in my old age.).  To my surprise, he said to put a pair on, “behind that curtain”.  And he pointed to a simple curtain there in front of the store.  There was no “changing room.”  I did so, and then he measured to determine what needed to be done.

I went back and picked up those clothes today, which were ready --- and reasonably priced.  I also took in my old winter coat for cleaning, since the worst of Michigan winter now appears over, and I had worn that coat every day of the winter.  He pointed to the frayed sleeve cuffs, and I said: “that’s okay.”  That’s just part of my not worrying about impressing anyone, but he nodded and still said “try it on please.”  I did, and he showed me that he could easily re-do the sleeve to hide the fraying, and I said to do so.

This morning, I was driving home from church, and I was stopped at the intersection where the OK Cleaners store stood, far back from the road, almost not visible.  I turned the corner and then, to my surprise, I saw another cleaning store only a block away.  This one was right on the road and named “Touch of Class” cleaning, and it had a fancy sign and advertised that it did custom cleaning.  Then I thought how the two stores now mirror what’s important in my life versus what is important in the culture.  One promotes a touch of class, so you will be envied.  The other just says we’ll make things okay. 

I just want to live a life that is not focused on self, not one to be envied.  I think that is what I was taught as I grew up, and our culture is now so far away from.  My name is Tom, nothing fancy about it, and in fact it is a name chosen in memory of someone else who was a saint, a rare person, and it is he who should be envied.  I am no saint. I am content to be just okay, if that is what God created me to be.