Wear white after Labour Day? NOT ME!!!!

I grew up in the 40’s and 50’s, in a culture that KNEW that you didn’t wear white before the 24^th of May weekend or after Labour Day! Why this was so was never explained, nor did I ever question why. To this day, I still find it impossible to wear white outside those boundaries.  Yes, I have tried! Only to end up taking the offending garment off because it made me feel so uncomfortable.  Even when visiting the southern hemisphere during ‘their’ summer, I still could not bring myself to ‘wear white’ because although the weather was right, the names of the months weren’t. And YES, I realize this makes no sense, that neither the season, nor the temperature, matters!

If this tradition, that is so obviously flawed, but really about something of little importance in today’s world, is so difficult for me to jettison, then why should I be surprised at how difficult it is to change outdated religious doctrines and creeds. These creeds and doctrines, many of which are 1500 years old, came from a time with a world-view very different from our own.  They are how the church leaders of that time, tried to capture their understanding of God with the knowledge of the world that was available to them at that time. Even  with the knowledge we have in the 21 century, people still say things like “The world might be round now, but it was flat back then” [true story!].

Religious beliefs go to the core of our being, and so, YES, they will be the hardest to change … even harder than being comfortable wearing white after Labour Day!