See also: “Resources on Quaker Plainness”
This was a post I sent to the “Pearl” email list, which consists of members of the 2002 FGC Gathering workshop led by Lloyd Lee Wilson of North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative). Eighth Month 20, 2002
I thought I’d share some of my journey in plain-ness since
Gathering. There’s two parts to plain dress: simplicity and plain-ness.
The most important part of the simplicity work has been simplifying
my wardrobe. It’s incredible how many clothes I have. I suspect I have
a lot fewer than most Americans but there’s still tons, and never
enough room in the closets & dressers (I do have small closets but
still!). I’d like to get all my clothes into one or two dresser drawers
and donate the rest to charity. Two pairs of pants, a couple of shirts,
a few days worth of socks and undergarments. This requires that I wash
everything frequently which means I hand-wash things but that’s okay.
The point is to not worry or think about what I’m going to wear every
morning. I’ve been to a wedding and a funeral since I started going
plain and it was nice not having to fret about what to wear.
I also appreciate using less resources up by having fewer clothes.
It’s hard to get away from products that don’t have some negative side
effects (support of oil industry, spilling of chemical wastes into
streams, killing of animals for hide, exploitation of people
constructing the clothes at horrible wages & conditions). I try my
best to balance these concerns but the best way is to reduce the use.
These motivations are simple-ness rather than plain-ness. But I am
trying to be plain too. For men it’s pretty easy. My most common
clothing since Gathering has been black pants, shoes and suspenders,
and the combo seems to look pretty plain. There’s no historic
authenticity. The pants are Levi-Dockers which I already own, the shoes
non-leather ones from Payless, also already owned. The only purchase
was suspenders from Sears. I bought black overalls too. My Dockers were
victims of a minor bike accident last week (my scraped knee & elbow
are healing well, thank you, and my bike is fine) and I’m replacing
them with thicker pants that will hold up better to repeated washing
& use. There’s irony in this, certainly. If I were being just
simple, I’d wear out all the pants I have–despite their color–rather
than buy new ones. I’d be wearing some bright & wacky pants, that’s
for sure! But irony is part of any witness, especially in the beginning
when there’s some lifestyle shifting that needs to happen. As a person
living in the world I’m bound to have contradictions: they help me to
not take myself too seriously and I try to accept them with grace and
good humor.
But practicality in dress more important to me than historical
authenticity. I don’t want to wear a hat since I bike every day and
want to keep my head free for the helmet; it also feels like my doing
it would go beyond the line into quaintness. The only type of clothing
that’s new to my wardrobe is the suspenders and really they are as
practical as a belt, just less common today. A few Civil War
re-enactment buffs have smilingly observed that clip-on suspenders
aren’t historically authentic but that’s perfectly okay with me. I also
wear collars, that’s perfectly okay with me too.
The other thing that I’m clear about is that the commandment to
plain dress is not necessarily eternal. It is situational, it is partly
a response to the world and to Quakerdom and it does consciously refer
to certain symbols. God is what’s eternal, and listening to the call of
Christ within is the real commandment. If I were in a Quaker community
that demanded plain dress, I expect I would feel led to break out the
tie-die and bleach and manic-panic hair coloring. Dress is an outward
form and like all outward forms and practices, it can easily become a
false sacrament. If we embrace the form but forget the source (which I
suspect lots of Nineteenth Century Friends did), then it’s time to
cause a ruckus.
Every so often Friends need to look around and take stock of the
state of the Society. At the turn of the 20th Century, they did that.
There’s a fascinating anti-plain dress book from that time that argues
that it’s a musty old tradition that should be swept away in light of
the socialist ecumenical world of the future. I suspect I would have
had much sympathy for the position at the time, especially if I were in
a group of Friends who didn’t have the fire of the Spirit and wore
their old clothes only because their parents had and it was expected of
Quakers.
Today the situation is changed. We have many Friends who have
blended in so well with modern suburban America that they’re
indistinguishable in spirit or deed. They don’t want to have committee
meeting on Saturdays or after Meeting since that would take up so much
time, etc. They’re happy being Quakers as long as not much is expected
and as long as there’s no challenge and no sacrifice required. We also
have Friends who think that the peace testimony and witness is all
there is (confusing the outward form with the source again, in my
opinion). When a spiritual emptiness sets into a community there are
two obvious ways out: 1) bring in the fads of the outside world
(religious revivalism in the 19 Century, socialist ecumenicalsim in the
20th, Buddhism and sweat lodges in the 21st). or 2) re-examine the fire
of previous generations and figure out what babies you threw away with
the bathwater in the last rebellion against empty outward form.
I think Quakers really found something special 350 years ago, or
rediscovered it and that we are constantly rediscovering it. I have
felt that power/ I know that there is still one, named Jesus Christ,
who can speak to my condition and that the Spirit comes to teach the
people directly. I’ll read old journals and put on old clothes to try
to understand early Friends’ beliefs. The clothes aren’t important, I
don’t want to give them too much weight. But there is a tradition of
Quakers taking on plain dress upon some sort of deep spiritual
convincement (it is so much of a cliche of old Quaker journals that
literary types classify it as part of the essential structure of the
journals). I see plain dress as a reminder we give ourselves that we
are trying to live outside the worldliness of our times and serve the
eternal. My witness to others is simply that I think Quakerism is
something to commit oneself wholly to (yes, I’ll meet on a Saturday)
and that there are some precious gifts in traditional Quaker faith
& practice that could speak to the spiritual crisis many Friends
feel today.
In friendship,
Martin Kelley
Atlantic City Area MM, NJ
martink@martinkelley.com
Related Posts
- Plain Dressing at the FGC Gathering (Seventh Month 2004)
- Gohn Brothers and some plain dressing tips (Seventh Month 2004)
