“If men can run the world, why can’t they stop wearing neckties. How intelligent is it to start the day by tying a little noose around your neck.”  Linda Ellerbee

How many ties do you have?

“I’ve found that you don’t need to wear a necktie if you can hit.”  Ted Williams

I’ve been accused of writing from my head rather than from my heart.  Well, maybe so — but what follows is from my heart:

At long last, I’ve found the missing piece.

I have always wondered about the wisdom of neckties.  Why do men wear neck ties?

Maybe you like ties.  If so, forgive me for my rant, and feel free to go ahead and wear them.  I’m not against neckties — around other people’s necks.  Just not mine.

I did a little research and discovered that (according to Wikipedia anyway) “The necktie traces back to the time of Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) when Croatian mercenaries from the Military Frontier in French service, wearing their traditional small, knotted neckerchiefs, aroused the interest of the Parisians. Due to the slight difference between the Croatian word for Croats, Hrvati, and the French word, Croates, the garment gained the name “Cravat”. The new article of clothing started a fashion craze in Europe where both men and women wore pieces of fabric around their necks. In the late seventeenth century, the men wore lace cravats that took a large amount of time and effort to arrange. These cravats were often tied in place by cravat strings, arranged neatly and tied in a bow.”

Can you believe it?  Almost 400 years later, we’ve put men on the moon, stuffed rooms full of computer power into your wrist watch, invented global warming, the Internet, and other amazing feats, but we’re still slaves to those silly little things around our necks called ties.

Another source reads, “Ties have truly become an important fashion accessory using color and pattern to create a means of a man’s self-expression.”  Oh come now — surely we can come up with more creative ways of expressing ourselves.

Well by now you have a good idea about how I feel about neck ties.  Just to set the record straight, I’ve paid my dues.  For over 25 years, as a member of corporate America, i was obliged to wear one…every day — no matter what.  Crazyness!  Part of my evaluation, I’m sure, was my compliance with the group-think conformity of wearing my tie to work.  Of course, I could self-express by wearing a red one, or a yellow one, or even one with polka-dots.  They didn’t even care if it had gravy spots on it — just so I was choking myself like they all were.

Well, I finally found a use for ties.  That’s the missing piece I’m so excited to share with you.  That piece came from an incredible find on the Internet in the form of a blog post with the provocative title, “What You Can Learn From Tying a Tie.”  Doesn’t the title alone make you want to read the rest of the article to find out what you can possibly learn from tying a tie?

Seriously, the extremely well-written article explains that there is a wonderful object lesson available to us all just by learning to tie fancy knots dangerously close to our throats in a long piece of cloth that we wear to just to self-express.  Rather than spoil it, I’ll leave it to you read the article in Today’s Link.

So, take your tie off and make yourself a magnificent weekend.

BTW, I do still have a rack full of the dastardly things that I still feel obligated to wear from time to time.  But those times are precious few and far between.  I’ve been delivered!!!  Hallelujah!

Link of the Day
What You Can Learn From Tying a Tie

Photo by MShades