Living in the Past:  All the nuns saw him immediately when he entered school.  He was a classmate of mine and he was wearing a flaming red shirt with brilliant orange pants.  It was back in the days when loud colors were in fashion.  They were, of course, supplemented with white buck shoes.  They were solid white shoes with red soles underneath.

This boy, unfortunately, didn’t realize that, even though he was wearing two items which were in fashion, they didn’t go together.  And the nuns actually sent him home to change.  Bright red with bright orange hurt your eyes when worn together.

There have been countless variations of popular fashions over the years.  I remember desperately wanting a long green coat with a big collar on it because everyone else was wearing one.   I remember thinking my blue jeans were not as good as those the more popular kids were wearing.

This poor boy’s attempt at being accepted by wearing current fashion backfired.  Instead of everyone thinking he was really cool, they thought he was an idiot.  He misused the latest fashion and missed the mark of being cool.

Some of us may be fashion-challenged this way as well.  We don’t quite get the fashions right.  We wear things backwards or put the wrong colors together like blue and brown.   What seemed outrageous back then (red and orange together) has become a lesson I am still learning: fashion alone does not make the man or the woman.