W W T D? — What Would Terry Do?

     In the beginning, there was sackcloth. Cloth made out of sacks wasn’t too bad until they came out with canvas and then with burlap. It was around this time that sackcloth started being worn by ascetics. Ascetics weren’t wearing sackcloth for aesthetics. They wore sackcloth to help them keep from automatically responding to bodily needs. The idea being that sackcloth would cause you to itch, and that way you could keep from scratching. There were a lot of ascetics then – it was the thing to be. But not everybody’s cut out to be an ascetic – least of all me.
     And so, with almost everybody being an ascetic, sackcloth was a top selling item at the clothes markets until sometime during the Roman Empire. At this point, the extreme ascetics moved their headquarters to Cilicia, Turkey and came out with the hairshirt – a direct competitor to sackcloth. Much more stylish, I should imagine. They also came out with the cilice, which was the top of the line in French hairshirts. It’s no wonder then that hairshirt and cilice both derive from the word Cilicia. But, hairshirt, sackcloth, or cilice, the idea was the same – to help you to be a better ascetic.
     It was also, during this time that John the Baptist went about sunk from head to toe in camel’s hair. (That’s a rough translation of the Greek New Testament.) We don’t know whether he wore the sackcloth or hairshirt model. But since he was on a limited income, he probably didn’t wear the cilice.
     Over time, dissent arose in the ranks of the ascetics, and more and more of them refused to wear the hairshirt. They decided that they could keep from scratching without any help. So now, the only ascetics required to wear hairshirts are the Carthusians and Carmelites. For all others, wearing a hairshirt is optional. Optional gets my vote any day, but I suppose since I’m not an ascetic, I don’t get a vote anyway.
     While the traditional ascetics had their backs turned, a new breed of ascetics arose. These new ascetics decided to convert the unsuspecting public to asceticism. So, they came out with wool underwear. They touted it as being warm and non-prickly, and they duped some of the public into believing them. I myself don’t doubt that wool underwear is warm, but there is no way I’m going to believe that it’s non-prickly! I get prickly heat just thinking about wearing it. And I’m too much of a wimp to even try!

Wool underwear first appeared as long johns. Long johns keep your entire lower body warm. And, in an emergency, you can pretend you’re wearing red pants, when you’re actually running around in your long johns. For those latter day John the Baptist’s who liked to sink into wool from head to toe, there was the union suit combining both hairshirt and hairpants. And for the ladies there were pantalets – long johns with ruffles at the ankles.
Long johns were worn pretty much all the time – not just when it was cold. With the advent of global warming, it got to be too hot to wear long johns all the time, so long johns were reserved for cold weather, and wool underwear was introduced. Wool underwear is best worn when it’s cold, but those modern day ascetics promote its use year round.

Well, that may not be exactly the way it happened, but it’s as close as I could get without actually touching a hairshirt.

Asceticism – Been there, Done that, Got a free hairshirt.

Book 5
My World of Clothes

Written by Dale Stubbart
Blessed by Terry Stubbart

Page 3 of 7
Nov 2000