tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196316261585940971.post2966672373474841924..comments2023-07-06T06:04:07.849-07:00Comments on Sister, Daughter, Mother, Wife: As the Caterpillar Said, "Who Are You?"Anna Mussmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11631139113615066986noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196316261585940971.post-91639447797568205812014-07-22T17:25:31.731-07:002014-07-22T17:25:31.731-07:00Interesting. Someone should write an article about...Interesting. Someone should write an article about the tension between the cultural catch-phrase "I need to express my personality" and the potential shallowness of a personality that is defined be a series of minor lifestyle choices.Anna Mussmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11631139113615066986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196316261585940971.post-82739203011268444292014-07-22T08:25:59.640-07:002014-07-22T08:25:59.640-07:00Excellent article. I particularly appreciate the ...Excellent article. I particularly appreciate the point that vocation is incarnational. Well said. <br /><br />A tangential idea this article sparked in me was a reflection on the popularity of tattoos among the young generation. As a late Baby Boom/early Gen Xer, tats were considered to be rather seedy. For the educated classes, it might be something one did while "sowing wild oats", but limited to a single mark. For most who did have them, the common experience was "tattoo regret" - unless it was a small distinguishing mark of one's military service. <br /><br />Where am I going with this? I'm not fond of tats, finding them aesthetically displeasing, but can allow that I am culturally conditioned by my upbringing against them. Setting that aside, though, I think there is a substantive difference between getting the tattoo to make oneself as part of a military platoon, a group of sisters, or a school of nurses vs. making one's flesh a canvass for self-expressive "body art." Setting aside the Scriptural injunction (Lev. 19:28, I find it binding but others may not), I think one sees in the former case a desire to affirm and embrace one's vocational identity as part of a group, whereas in the latter it strikes me as an attempt at self-definition. We have so many rudderless souls in this generation, raised according to the zeitgeist, and so I am persuaded that at the core of this fashion of tattooings and piercings one finds a desire to create identity. <br /><br />If this be true, I think Christians need to respond to these marks with sympathy and love, for on many they are cries for help - or at least signs of a past struggle. Only we can point them to the better mark of the sign given in baptism, the cross that answers the question of "Who am I?" with the greatest comfort: "You are a child of God." Philliphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13715953453920138624noreply@blogger.com