Category Archives: rants

rants

How to dress for church

I did a Google search tonight.  “How to dress for church.” I came up with 37,700,000 results. Several How-to sites came up. A few blog posts (this one being my favorite that I found). A site with quotes about dressing up for church. It seems this is a topic that has been pondered many times over, and yet the answer still remains unclear.

I’ll be up front here and now about the fact that I am Catholic, and thus I am writing from that knowledge and stand point. I have attended services in the Lutheran, Baptist and Church of Christ faiths as well for various happenings. But I wanted to get that little “disclaimer” out there.

I absolutely love to attend mass every week. For one thing, its something familiar from my childhood that I carry on today. For another, church and faith keep me grounded, thankful, and hopeful. And finally… when I miss mass too many times in a row, I start to notice all other areas of my life start to get strained and tested. It is definitely one of my rocks in life.

I remember as a kid, I always had a new dress for Easter and for Christmas. We’d always “dress up” for mass every weekend. As did everyone around us.

Through the years, however, dressing for church has gone by the wayside. Yes, I admit, I regularly do wear jeans to church, but I never wear faded or torn up jeans. Dressier jeans with a nice top and nice boots or heals are my normal dress for mass. I still prefer to wear a dress for Easter and Christmas. Always makeup and my hair styled neatly. Dressing nice for church makes me feel good, helps me focus on mass, and is a sign of respect for the church and God.

A sign of respect for the church and God. That is what bothers me so much about how I see so many people dress for mass these days.

I know and have heard the argument time and time again that we should only care that the person attends mass. Be  welcoming to all who attend the services. Just be glad they are there.

I AM glad to see so many people attending church services. And I’ve attending plenty of churches in which I felt unwelcome to never put someone else thought that stress.

It makes me happy to see families coming together to mass. I feel like faith and the church are a key thing in keeping families together and in teaching children right from wrong through a moral code that the church teaches.

However, it makes me sad to see so many people not even try to show the church and their fellow parishioner enough respect to dress a little nicer than they would dress to spend a day on the lake or in their garden. I see so many come in torn up and dirty cargo shorts, t-shirts and flip flops. Or perhaps an over sized t-shirt, old jeans and sneakers stained from mowing the lawn. There’s absolutely no attempt made to acknowledge they are at church and not in their own living room in front of the TV. I see most people dress nicer to go to the mall.

It especially frustrates me when it people you will see on any other given day of the week in a suit and a tie for work. I’m not asking them to wear a suit and tie to church. Days in which that was expected have no-so-long-ago passed. I’m not even asking for khaki pants and a polo shirt. I’m asking simple for nice jeans, nice shoes and a maybe a button down. Or, okay, a polo shirt. At least comb your hair! Heck, there was one guy in church that regularly comes in jeans, hiking boots and a nice fitted t-shirt devoid of anything but a stylish design on it. Even that looks nice! It shows he tries to look better for church than for a day out at the lake.

Like I said, I am grateful to see so many people attending church these days. It is truly a wonderful thing. And it goes to show people feel more and more comfortable within the walls of our churches. They feel more welcome.

I just wish that everyone would take a little more seriously and reverently, and at least dress as nice as you would dress to go to a meeting with a VIP. Because really… when it all comes down to it… when you go to church, your going to meet with the ultimate of VIPs.

God.

memories, nashville, point of view, random musings, rants, whining, work

My “Hollywood” experiences

I joked tonight that I’ve lived in Nashville too long when a movie being filmed outside my place of work annoyed me instead of leaving me excited. I say that about running into singers, actors, etc. as well because on a whole I really have just come to take it in stride. (Though I have to confess, George Strait made me totally freeze up and start stuttering and lose a great opportunity to possibly meet him, but some day maybe the chance will return. Doubtful. But maybe.)

I do think the whole Hollywood thing is pretty exciting. And there is a true mystique and fascination that exists around the whole TV and movie making process. I admit to getting wrapped up in it on occasion myself. Getting to participate in making the new Lee Ann Womack video was pretty incredible.

But twice in my life, Hollywood has made me throw my hands up in the air and want to scream in frustration.

InfamousMy first Hollywood experience was actually in little ol’ Marlin , Texas, in 2005 when they used the Falls County Courthouse to film a lot of scenes for the movie Infamous whose cast included Sandra Bullock and Sigourney Weaver. I was working at the town’s newspaper at that time, and of course this was the biggest news to hit Marlin in probably almost 20 years. (Well, the biggest bit of positive news.)

They filmed inside the courthouse and outside the courthouse. For exterior scenes, they put out a call for classic cars to line the streets around the courthouse. To be honest, the cars got me more excited than the stars, but then that’s just how I roll.

Dawg.

Whatever.

On the afternoon that they filmed some of the exterior scenes, I went out to try to get a few photos for the next week’s issue. I was careful to stay OUT of the way, but before long I was sniffed out and scolded to not take any photos due to the need to keep things about the movie confidential. I could respect that fact up to a couple points. One point was the fact that Marlin is a small town that I doubt any entertainment reporters would be picking up our paper to sniff for things about the movie. The other point was the one in which they started to impede my ability to do MY job.

Old CarsIt took awhile, but I did finally get them to leave me alone enough to take pictures of the cars all around the square. One gentleman offered to let me sit in his car and watch from afar, which I gladly accepted as at that point I had to crouch down behind all these cars to stay out of view.

Eventually, the movie was done filming. We ran the photo I took of the cars in the paper. And life moved on…

I never did see the movie. It’s in my Amazon.com wishlist in case anyone cares to buy it for me.

Fast forward four years, and I had my second Hollywood experience. This time, Nashville, TN. Printer’s Alley. My job? Working in one of the bars in the Alley. The filming is going on in the bar next to the one at which I work, but it somewhat disrupts things in the whole Alley.

Now, understand, when I heard days ago about a movie being filmed in the Alley, I got excited about how much great PR this could mean for it. Perhaps seeing our Alley in a movie would bring visitors next year?

However, going into the night I was already in a bad mood, but it didn’t take long for the bad mood to sour further. I quickly felt like I couldn’t do my job properly lest I cause some sort of problem between “Quiet! Filming!” barks and worrying about how our band would be able to load in their gear. Ultimately, I wanted to do my job, while they did theirs, but struggled with how to do just that.PA filming

Again.

And I have to admit. That frustrated me. I believe my exact phrase was “Pain in the a–, huh?” to my husband as he pulled in to unload his gear to play.

I often get this exact same frustration from tourists who seem to forget that while Nashville is a tourism-centric city, it’s also home to many people. We’re happy to have you here. But please don’t stop us from living our lives; doing our jobs.

Chances are tomorrow night I’ll have my third experience, as apparently filming will be again occurring in the Alley. I don’t know if that will go into the night and overlap with my time there. But, the chance is there. And I can’t say that it excites me.

Call it a pessimistic approach to the experience if you want.

Me? I call it an experienced approach to it.

Because that’s how I roll.

Dawg.

Whatever.