The Rise & Fall of Clothing

I have been told that our culture cultivates moral decline

That we live in a time which pushes propaganda of pleasure, sex, and self interest

Our cultural standard of clothing has gone from the scandal of showing your ankle, to the norm of displaying your navel

From Victorian coverage head to toe, with absolutely no skin to show

To a life filled with spandex skirts and tube top shirts

And I wonder if this new fabric to skin ratio reflects a morally decrepit environment

With the shrinkage of clothing does also go the shrinkage of morality?

With each hem raised are more eyes raised in lust to see it?

With each pair of painted on pants are we painting an image of lustful conquests?

With each new inch of skin are we inching our way to a shameless action of sin?

Or, perhaps, are we finally finding our path beginning to straighten?

Are we seeing written on the butt of yoga pants a message not of depravity, but of hope?

Could it be that humanity is trying to redeem the invention of clothing at the fall?

Do we feel no shame of nakedness because all lust has left us?

Or have we lost that defense because lust now rules us?

Do our outfits speak of our desire for attention,

Or of our resolve for redemption?

So, again, I wonder if this new fabric to skin ratio reflects a morally decrepit environment

Or does it give hope to a radically redemptive movement?

If we keep tightening pants and lowering tops

Will we be tightening our grip on life in the pre-fall garden?

Or will we be lowering our standards until we’ve fallen farther than before?

Let us hope the former…

Because without clothes,

We’ll have no parachute to catch us as we fall.

Originally posted 3/6/17

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