RINGING THE CHANGES
I only did it because I like it.
I'm used to people giving me odd looks, but there's been a marked increase over recent months; particularly when I'm with Christians; and especially when I'm in my clerical garb. Even outside of the Christian ghetto, a computer salesman refused to believe I was Assistant Principal of a Bible College the other day, and not just because of my jeans, nor even because the faculty member with me looked and sounded like a member of the American Mafia.
Being a shy introvert (concealed beneath a brash exterior), I have been amazed at the attention this little change has attracted. Have I dyed my hair luminous green? No! Have I had a Michael Jackson nose job? No! Have I replaced my higgledy piggledy tooth array (a fork-tongued dentist assured my mum that the gaps would fill up as I grew older) with a new set of gold chompers? No!
When 25 years ago I started putting my cuff-links and tie-clips in a little velvet-lined box, I was slightly embarrassed and thought my friends would call me a Big Girl's Blouse if they knew. (I was a 'mod' with a Lambretta at the time.) I could never have imagined then, that 25 years further on I would need another little box for my ear-rings.
Yes. The major change has been a tiny hole in my left ear.
So now I can wear a black stud when I'm in dog-collar and suit; a gold sleeper during the week in college; a diamond or larger silver ring when in Dinner Jacket and Black or White Tie; and sometimes I wear nothing at all if I think I’m becoming a bit of a poser... But it’s just so exciting getting up in the morning and having a whole new part of the body to dress - or not to dress.
Earnest Christians ask me if there is some deep theological significance (based on Exodus 21.6 or Psalm 40.6?) A Scottish friend (mother of teenagers) told me it was a mid-life crisis LCT - Last Chance Trendy. People who know me well just laughed at first and now ignore it.
What's more, I have suddenly become the repository for all my women friends' left-over ear-rings. (How do you manage to lose an ear-ring from a pierced ear?) Most of these pendulous oddments are quite unwearable and I pass them on to trendier friends with stronger lobes, languorous eyes and scythe-like cheek bones. And sometimes some of the 24 guys who share my house can only buy them in pairs and pass the spare ring on to me. I will be a regular Rattners by the end of the year!
If I had known that one tiny ring could shatter so many false images of Christians and church, and open up so many interesting conversations, I would have had it done 25 years ago.
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