Merely Clothes

In what little spare time I have, I was reading up on some Lacan the other day and stumbled across this quote:

"I can tell you a little tale, that of a parakeet that was in love with Picasso. How could one tell? From the way the parakeet nibbled the collar of the shirt and the flaps of his jacket. Indeed, the parakeet was in love with what is essential to man, namely, his attire. The parakeet was like Descartes, to whom men were merely clothes (habits) walking about. Clothes promise debauchery when one takes them off. But this is only a myth, a myth that converges with the bed I mentioned earlier. To enjoy a body when there are no more clothes leaves intact the question of what makes the One, that is, the question of identification. The parakeet identified with the clothed. 

The same goes for everything involving love. The habit loves the monk, as they are but one thereby. In other words, what lies under the habit, what we call the body, is perhaps but the remainder." (Jacques Lacan, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan Book XX: On Feminine Sexuality, the Limits of Love and Knowledge 1972-73)

I find this passage incredibly interesting. What better way to sum up the postmodern situation than the picture of men (and women) who are "merely clothes walking about"? We create for ourselves images and projections of who we want to be and display that to society. We take on identities, whether it be a monk's habit or business suit or what have you, and let them control us to the extent that we become synonomous with them. We have a desire to break through, to view our authentic selves, but even this is 'debaucherous'. In many ways the so-called 'relativism' of the postmodern context simply speaks to this plurality of identities as well as to the schism between identity and truth.

Now, by no means to I want to return to a monolithic view of truth that is imposed upon others. We are not healed by changing clothes, but by reconciling with them. Brad did a great job in advocating for our identity ('who we be') to be viewed in an iconic fashion, as a window and a mirror, that points to the truth of God and yet forges our own unique self-identity. Truth is the iconic connection between our bodies and our identities, who we are and who we are called to be, the now and the not yet, which is forged in faith.