The exponential 'pants graph' and the historical filter of humour.

The year was 1984. I was the 'breakdance champion' of my town - not only could I 'pop the moves', I also looked the part! I was wearing a cut off shirt (showing my navel, and a few other parts of my torso through the holes in the shirt), I wore 'balloon' pants (they were tight at the ankles and ballooned out, tightening once again when they got to my waist), and to top it all off I had one luminous yellow sock, and one luminous pink sock, protected from the pavement by a pair of black, thin soled, 'Chinese slippers'... I won't even begin to tell you about my hairstyle, cut off left glove and the other 'fashion accessories'... It was a pretty dire situation!

This photo is of me in 1989 (or so) with our band. I am the guy in the blue T Shirt with the bad hairdo and the Raybans.... Yes, silly, I know!

When I look back on it now I laugh at my appearance! Of course at that stage I thought that I was the epitome of fashion. Now, however, I have to laugh, and blush, in order to process how ridiculous I looked! Of course that judgement is comparative in nature - I tend to judge my appearance at that stage against my current state of 'coolness'! I think we all tend to do that. We think that our level of coolness, our tastes, fashion choices, and appearance has become more sophisticated (and perhaps subtle) over time! Of course if you fast-forward 10 years to my wedding in 1994 you'll see a picture of me wearing a black double-breasted suit with a floral tie (I think) and a mullet! Yup, business on the front and rock and roll down the back baby! At that stage I also thought I was quite cool! This picture of me giving my beautiful wife a kiss with my mullet blowing in the wind is a source of constant amusement to my daughter and her friends!

Imagine, for a moment, a graph. On the vertical axis you rate coolness (from ridiculous at the bottom to ultra cool at the top). On the horizontal axis you have the date, ranging from 1972 to today... I'm sure that most of us will picture our 'coolness' graph as rising (with an occasional REALY low dip) as time passes. And, in order to cope with how uncool we were we will laugh at our old photographs, and justify our appearance with something akin to "... yup, looks silly doesn't it!? But it used to be quite cool back then!"

I wonder what I will think about my current appearance in 10 years time!?

The inspiration for this post comes from a podcast that I listened to - I subscribe to the Mars Hill Bible Church podcast (and NO it is not the Mark Driscoll 'Mars Hill', I don't quite relate to Mark Driscoll's style (although his doctrine is largely spot on), no this is the Rob Bell of Nooma 'Mars Hill' Church). The podcast was called 'Blocks and Boards' and you can download it here:

http://www.marshill.org/teaching/download.mp3?filename=MTEwMjA4Lm1wMw%3D%3D.mp3

In it he considers Paul's admonition about forgetting the past and straining towards the future (Phil 3:12-14)... The truth is that Christ does help us to make peace with our past, almost like looking back on an old photograph, we find that we can tolerate what we were, and feel better about what we are, but also strive for what we are to become!

You can sing up here: http://www.marshill.org/teaching/podcast.php

It is well worth downloading some of their sermons.