May Crowning Tsking
The day when the eighth graders pose on the church steps, process in for the May Crowning and the ladies working in the rectory pause from their work to tsk about the dresses. The tsking changes nothing. I’m sure the school tries to encourage more modest attire. I would hope that the parents wish to have their 14 year old daughters processing into church appropriately, dressed, i.e. not like an underage Vegas lounge singer.

On days like today I am glad that purchasing dressy attire for young ladies is no longer a part of my agenda. I think my last traumatic experience was finding a non-scandalous dress for Martha to wear for confirmation. And that included maternal and fillial hyperventilation, a near fainting incident (mine) in Target, ending with purchasing a light over-jacket to salvage the ensemble. So I know what it’s like out there. The market place is not on our side.

That said, I still envision a May Crowning with less exposed flesh. The least reason being the comfort of the young ladies. The eighth grade boys were not suffering in the cool morning air, what with their button down shirts and blue blazers. But their female classmates have learned young when it comes to suffering for appearances. Shawls? Pashminas? A thermal blanket from the Red Cross? Something? Anything?

When Bridget entered the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Queen competition in Chicago, the rules were explicit in forbidding formal wear and cocktail attire and overexposed backs and shoulders. And if they had disqualified the girls who ignored that direction, it would have been a small contestant pool. I can understand her impulse to remove the shrug over her sleeveless dress, but I admire her observance of the rules. As you might imagine, her father and I sat in the audience doing a lot of tsking.

While I’m tsking...Last May I did not make my May altar in the living room. I was recovering from surgery, the house was in chaos and our lives were in flux. Rick said, “Don’t worry...you can have a nice May altar next year.” Well, here we are. I’m feeling great, the house is in chaos and our lives are in flux. The St. Isidore Foundation is still storing equipment in my home. I can’t get close enough to my statue of the Blessed Mother to move it. (Not without risking breaking the statue, some delicate computer equipment or a miscellaneous bone.) I can’t clear enough space in the living room for the May altar. The best I can hope to do now is to finish packing away the Easter decorations. The are stacked on the hutch in the living room - and a few other places - and I can barely get close to them. You know, what with the chaos and flux and all. Tsk. Tsk.