The Cardinal Sins, or 7 Deadly Sins include greed, pride, wrath, sloth, envy, gluttony and lust. These 7 are referred to as Deadly Sins because they are considered destructive to the soul if not repented and forgiven.
Many years ago, I remember a public and apparently extremely newsworthy conflict between televangelist, Rev. Jerry Falwell and presidential candidate at the time, Jimmy Carter. Rev. Falwell was appalled by a Carter interview comment suggesting he (Carter) had “Lusted in his heart.” As well as I remember, Mr. Carter’s ratings fell fairly significantly and Carter balked at Falwell’s comments. There was much news coverage and discussion about the whole thing and jokes among friends all over the place about that ‘in the heart lusting’ thing. I was young at the time and don’t remember the situation or the context of the controversy but I DO remember the hub-bub surrounding Falwell’s comment.
Mostly I remember it because Rev. Falwell was born, raised, started his religious empire right here in OUR city and resided here so news that involved him REALLY involved him here in local news because he was our number one celebrity. He kept Lynchburg, VA on the map and in the news.
The context really isn’t important to this post but when I was sitting down at the computer to write this, I suddenly remembered Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Carter at odds, quite publicly … and with a furor here … because of the LUST thing. And the lust thing, that part of the list of 7 Deadly Sins is the basis of this blog. (How’s that for trotting the horse around the barn to get inside?)
CATO Fashions is my FAVORITE women’s apparel store. I shop for clothing pretty much exclusively at the local store and during the pandemic I began shopping through the on-line catalog. Looking at my computer screen filled with photos of the latest fashions and making a rare purchase from time to time … rare because no one really knew if we would be sequestered indefinitely at home wearing sweats or if life as we’d known it would eventually return to the COVID-weary.
In the on-line catalog in October, I noticed and kind of liked an animal print full length coat. I didn’t linger on the coat for 2 reasons – 1) I didn’t NEED a coat, and 2) I’ve never been excited by animal print. It can be overused in a leopard-like minute and make the wearer TACKY in less time than that, so I moved on. EXCEPT every time I got a new catalog the coat was there and every time I lingered long enough to check it out again.
In November I needed a cocktail dress for a once-a-year party my husband and I attend during the Christmas holidays so I went to CATO and found the PERFECT dress. As a matter of fact, wearing that dress was sort of “magical,” The dress got more compliments than I can remember and when I sent a photo to CATO of me at the party wearing that magic dress, CATO immediately used it in the CATO Gallery in their catalog. What an honor and a surprise.
Like the exciting mystery sack Santa drags from house-to-house on Christmas Eve, that magical cocktail dress that I was carrying out the door of the store in a CATO bag seemed to tug me in the direction of (when what to my wandering eyes should appear) a rack to the right of the door. And ON that rack hung the leopard coat. I would swear my feet left the floor and I floated from the door to the rack. The coat was far more attractive than it had been on my computer screen and although they only had 3 in sizes too large for me, I felt compelled to put down my purse and the magical dress in the bag and try on the coat.
What happened next can ONLY be described as a supernatural experience.
The coat was soft … really soft. I slipped it on, pulled that soft plush collar up around my chin and the store, the garment racks and the mall outside disappeared – replaced by stars and fireworks and colors and the sounds of angels singing, “Ta Da.” The sequins on the magical cocktail dress rustled in the bag. I took the coat off and the magic was broken. I floated to the car and told my husband that I’d just had an epiphany. I wanted that coat.
I enjoy clothes primarily because my 38-year career as an OR nurse, while exciting and rewarding, was spent … every minute of those 38 years … wearing scrubs, looking like all the other nurses AND the doctors AND the orderlies. We were like (Star Trek reference here) the BORG … we were part of The Collective. Since taking an early retirement, being able to wear personality-reflecting garments has been a joy. Even experiencing that particular joy, only rarely does a specific garment REALLY become a focal point of daily living (obsession?) for me. At the risk of repeating myself, I REALLY wanted that coat.
The local store did not have my size. My size no longer was available in the catalog. The epiphany had come too late.
I called all 8 stores in the state of Virginia and found only ONE coat in my size in a store in a town 45 minutes away. The clerk I spoke with said she would hold it for me but we didn’t have time for a 100-mile round trip drive to get the coat.
I began watching the catalog … checking several times a day hoping someone would return a coat in my size, but nobody did. My husband offered to drive that 100-mile round trip to get the coat for me as a birthday gift but I couldn’t ask him to do that since I knew how busy he was and I really didn’t need a coat.
SUDDENLY, like a bolt from that same ‘blue’ where the fireworks went off and the angels sang to me of leopard coats that were surly manufactured in heaven, I was hit with a realization. I suddenly understood Jimmy Carter’s alleged Lusting in his Heart condition. There obviously WAS such an ailment and I HAD it … I was deep in the throes of one of the 7 Deadly Sins. I rationalized that the only cure (the dictionary said that LUST was destructive to the soul) was repentance and forgiveness and the only path I could see to repentance was BUYING THAT COAT.
SO … riding along with my husband on his trip to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, I asked him to drop me off at CATO. I went in and they still had 2 coats one size larger than my size and one even larger. I tried on one of the 2 smaller ones. Again, as the first time I tried on the coat, it was too large. Closing my eyes and holding my breath, I slipped into the other one-size-larger one and …. as happens only once in a miracle … the second coat, just an infinite bit smaller, FIT.
I was so excited when I made the purchase, the sales person asked me a question I hadn’t been asked since I was a child, “Would you like to wear it home?” Resisting the urge, I carried it out to the car in a large CATO bag. On the ride home I kept my hand inside the bag on the soft fabric of the coat. My husband smiled and said he was happy that I was happy. Somewhere that choir of CATO angels was singing.
It’s been hard to take the coat off or not to keep trying it on. Today I wore it for the first time and it felt every bit as good as it did the first time I tried it on way back in early November when the room disappeared and the angels sang.
Apparently, I was also absolved of any possibility of damaging my soul to the point of destruction and I repented for my side trip into the Lusting in My Heart Zone. I believe I was forgiven (I think). This was my first time on that side of lusting and I took the situation in hand and believe I stopped it just in time, grateful that I’d only crossed into the Twilight Zone of ONE deadly sin. I’m not sure I could have dealt so well with sloth or gluttony at the same time.
This morning, I pulled that soft collar up under my chin and walked out into the world. In that moment all was right with that revolving sphere, if only for a little while, as viewed from the warmth of a leopard coat. And the angels sang and sang.
Somewhere Jimmy Carter was smiling.
heimdalco 