The Cracked Acorn: Fall Fashions

It is almost the time again when the ladies’ fall fashions will be paraded out in the news media. I wonder what the models eat. Certainly, they do not have a BIG MAC or the all-you-can-eat bar. The subliminal message is that slimness is closely related to physical beauty.

Long ago, Iran: We had a satellite tracking site at the Tabriz University campus. We lived in the METROPOLE HOTEL, and an army truck with an Iranian sergeant was our driver. We were picked up in the morning and brought back to our hotel in the evening. One morning, the sergeant asked us to come over and watch him collect his winnings from the lottery. He then went to an adjacent kiosk and bought black and white pictures of large, fully clothed women staring and smiling into the camera. He thought this was the most. He showed them to us, and I noticed that there was not one who could fit into a size 4.

Remember, this is the Middle East. Health care is non-existent as it was in Biblical times. Women are required to do lots of manual labor and to bear strong and healthy children. This is very dangerous. Similac and Gerber are unknown. Women must nurse their children or find a “wet” nurse. God intervened in Exodus 2:7 by providing the real mother to continue to nurse Moses at the age of three months.

Genesis 24:16 And the damsel (Rebekah) was very fair to look upon, virgin never had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up. 17-And the servant ran to meet her and said, Let me, I thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. 19) And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they (ten camels) have done drinking. (A thirsty camel can drink 27 gallons in ten minutes.) Here, we have a young woman who is willing to draw this water in the heat of the day to be kind to a stranger. This would have been physically demanding, even for the strongest man. These qualities impressed the servant sent to find a wife for Isaac.

Genesis 29:16 And Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17) Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and well-favored. 18a) And Jacob loved Rachel. 31) And the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren. Leah could have been, by our standards of fashion, a small and very slim woman, while Rachel was Jacob’s dream of what a woman should be to bear lots of children and be a very physically fit person to handle the running of a large household. Again, this was the day of none of the modern conveniences that we have to keep the home running smoothly and also have our spare time “to find ourselves.” Again, the Lord knows best and blessed Leah, and Jacob had to learn the lesson of patience.

My brief visit was during the reign of Shah Pahlavi (married three times). His first wife bore no male heirs. Likewise, the second wife brought into the capitol city of Tehran the fashions of style and dress from Paris and New York. Many of the Iranian women with affordable means copied the Shah’s wife with her European dress and hairstyles. Beyond the major cities, the women still remained covered from the top of their heads to their feet.

10) Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. 17) She girded her loins with strength and strengthened her arms. 19) She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. 21) She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household is clothed with scarlet. 22) She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. 27) She looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness. 28) Her children arise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. (from Proverbs 31)