Shall We Tie One On?

Beware the deadly necktie!! This was the title of the story I read, taken from the Wall Street Journal, about the growing controversy over doctors wearing neckties. Since ties are rarely cleaned and hang right at a patients sneeze and cough level, they are supposed to be loaded with bacteria and bad germs. Who knew? Do you care if your doctor wears a tie? In more tie news, I was in the local drugstore the other day, at the photo developing counter, and snapped these pictures for you. Besides having your photograph on mugs and calendars, you can now have it on a necktie! Who knew? In times past, my husband's family would have not been pleased with any of this, because the Amish and Old Order Mennonites do not wear neckties. They are considered too flashy and worldly. Men's suits were too stylish, as well. They wore what was called a "plain suit"" with no lapels, which were considered frivolous and unnecessary. My husband wore one of these plain suits for many years until he was somewhere in his early 20's. Too bad I can't find a picture of him wearing one. But you can see what they look like from these family pictures. Here are my husband's parents with three of their children, Phil standing on the right striking a pose. The other picture is my mother-in-law with all her siblings and her father. Plenty of plain suits. They remind me of the Nehru jackets that were so popular with the teenagers in the 1960's. They were trying to be stylish, and the Mennonites and Amish were trying not to be. Go figure.

"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and it's desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

1 John 2:15,17