Any views or opinions expressed in this column are of the individual, group, or entity who submitted it and not the publication, owner(s), its advertisers, or affiliates.
I wear a hat when I hunt pheasants. Not just any hat, but a fluorescent orange hat. It looks like the hat that grass and compost master, Harry Rotz, wears. A fluorescent orange hat helps other hunters see you better in the field and not mistake you for a pheasant.
I have three fluorescent orange hats. One is a lighter weight baseball cap emblazoned with NRA across the front of it. The second is an Orvis wool baseball cap with pull-down ear muffs so I can hunt when it’s bitter cold. And the third is an Indiana Jones style hat with a wide brim for shooting skeet or clay pigeons.
My son-in-laws wear baseball caps. There are only two times I remember seeing one of them without his baseball cap. One was the day he married my daughter. The other was on a construction site when he was wearing a bright yellow helmet. I have to wonder if he sleeps in the darn thing.
My mother (who passed away at 102 years old) never ventured into the rain without her little plastic head covering. It kept her hair from getting messy, or so she said.
Maybe all this is not so unusual. I have had a number of consulting clients throughout the southwest. Cowboy hats are the norm. Each has its own blend of a high, rounded or shaped crown and a wide, curled or flat brim. One thing they all have in common. Don’t ever touch a cowboy’s hat without the cowboy’s permission. You’re liable to get shot!
The point is that hats have different purposes. They are worn to keep the sun out of your eyes, to protect your head and shoulders from the rain, wind and sand, to keep your head warm in the cold, to keep the sweat from running down your face in the heat, to warn hunters of your presence and just because they can look good.
Hats can also be worn as a matter of pride. Who doesn’t have a baseball cap, hat or other head covering that advertises an athletic team, piece of farm equipment, automobile, or other favorite product or service?
Here in southcentral Pennsylvania, we have a number of people who wear hats and other head coverings like bonnets for a different reason. Conservative Amish and Mennonite women wear a black outer bonnet in accordance with biblical passages: 1 Timothy 2:9-15, 1 Peter 3:1-6 and Titus 2:3-5. The idea is that the bonnet provides a sense of godly reserve becoming of a Christian woman.
These women can also wear a white cap-style headcovering in accordance with 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. The idea is that a Christian woman should have long uncut hair that is modestly covered with a veil as a sign of her being under the authority of her husband or father.
And the Bible is interpreted by the Amish and Mennonite people as requiring a woman to worship with her head covered. To Amish and Mennonite thinking one should be prepared to pray and worship at any time. Therefore, heads are appropriately covered all the time.
This belief in the sanctity of God is shared with the Jewish religion. Orthodox Jewish men wear a yarmulke, or skullcap, to cover their heads. Jews believe in covering their heads during prayer, eating and studying as a sign of respect toward God. Religious Jews will wear a yarmulke all the time.
Orthodox Jewish women, too, have three styles of hair covering – the snood, fall, and hat. According to Jewish law expressed in the Talmud and the law of Moses, married women need to cover their hair.
There are also a number of believers within mainstream Christian churches who believe that it shows respect to God to cover one’s head during prayer, sacrament and deeply meaningful rituals.
Marriage for example. Through antiquity the wedding veil and head covering has represented many things including virginity and chastity. Some of this meaning has been lost over the generations. However, the meaning of the veil as a sign of humility and respect before God has never changed.
With all of our contemporary practices regarding baseball caps, helmets, hunting hats, cowboy hats, bonnets, skullcaps, snoods, falls, veils and other head coverings, I wonder why a number of folks think their own head covering practices are acceptable while those of others are not.
Think about the case of those Muslims, who cover their heads to show respect for God within their own religious heritage.
Muslim women sometimes wear a hijab (which is a veil, scarf or covering) as a symbol of modesty, privacy and morality. The Qur’an requires Muslim women to dress modestly, just as the Bible requires of its Christian and Jewish adherents. While head coverings are associated with women, Muslim men sometimes wear a head covering as a means of showing modesty themselves.
So why should anyone speak or act negatively toward others who have the right to choose to cover themselves in a show of their personal modesty or respect for the sanctity of God. It would seem better to look upon those who demonstrate these fine qualities as good examples and role models within our society.
Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Dickinson College graduate, Pennsylvania System Of Higher Education (PASSHE) Governor, former Shippensburg University Trustee, awarded numerous patents, as well as Founder and Chairman of eLynxx Solutions. eLynxx provides cloud-software for automated sourcing and managing of mail marketing, swag, packaging, and all things print. He is a board member, campaign advisor, successful entrepreneur,
published author and commentator. He can be reached at Bill.Gindlesperger@eLynxx.com.
