COVERINGS FOR THE BODY
Rex Burress
Did it ever strike you as strange that mankind is the only animal finding the need to wear clothing over their skin?
Other living creatures are provided with fur, feathers, and skin adaptations to counter any weather condition—free and often quite beautiful! Aside from half-clothed movie stars on the 'red carpet,' and nude beaches, people spend much of their lives juggling wearing apparel and trying to dress to the trend of the times! Keeping warm has been a major contention, too...all to the tune of big bucks or borrowing skins from the wild animal! “Know, Nature's children all divide her care;/The fur that warmed a monarch warmed a bear.” --Pope
I have no clue why man was set free in the world so poorly equipped for survival. That can go back to prehistoric man, too, when it was more like tough skin than a fur covering to keep warm, except for the furs that could be obtained from animals. Hunting was a necessary way of survival—for cave men and wild animals—to obtain garments and food.
It never much occurred to me how the fur from the furbearers I caught as a boy would be used, other than maybe fur coats that were still popular back in the 1940's when mink and muskrats retained high prices. I only knew that to get top price for furs required proper skinning, stretching, and care. I pampered my pelts in the winter fur-shed in expectation of some funds for my meager income. Fur usage was being discouraged by animal lovers, while cotton, wool, and synthetics had become king in cloth. However it was cut, clothing was big business and style was the rage, maybe even more than in these days of excesses.
Whatever your take on the sensitive issue of profiling people, it is often the clothes and regalia that identifies a person. Clothes and tools help tell what you are and what you do in life. Now comes the issue of “What to wear at the polls?” Even the Supreme Court, in its judgment-gowns, is involved in clarifying what political party items may be worn at polls to avoid potential confrontations that could influence voters, as reported by the Associated Press. “Tea party T-shirts!” “Make America Great Again” caps?
Profiling inner content is more difficult, determined mostly by ideas and actions. John Muir may have appeared more as a tramp than an astute naturalist...until his words and thoughts came to light.
Although a naturalist or outdoor advocate usually dresses with durable khaki-type clothes and sturdy boots and hat, it is the optical equipment for nature observation that most readily identifies them, whereas you will know a fisherman by his fishing gear and a hunter by his guns. To each sport and work there is a tool as certain as there is a time and place for everything under the sun.
The reassuring thing about nature's creatures is that their appearance is constant. We can know them by their plumage and pelts over and over again, merely by understanding the phases of their molts and seasonal changes in their hair and feather content. You could say most male birds have a high pride in their gaudy feathers, but there was no personal selection of style—everything was provided for a practical purpose, mainly for protection from weather and stimulus for sexual attraction.
“Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.”--Rachel Zee
“The finest clothing made is a person's own skin, but, or course, society
demands something more than this.” --Mark Twain
“Adam and Eve were having such a good time until the snake said you
better get some leaves on.”