Doffing My Cap

For some reason the word “doff” came across my way and it made me wonder how many people recall “doffing” one’s hat or cap.  There was a time when it was a sign of respect and acknowledgement.  You did anything from taking your hat off, to lifting the front brim, to just touching it.  It was a sign of friendship, but usually it was respect toward someone of importance.  Even more interesting, it was a sign you gave as a sign of the importance you felt they had to you personally.

It came from “do off” just the way “do on” became “don,” like “don one’s coat.

Because this ancient word just wandered back into my landscape out of the blue I began to wander around with it, which led me to “bowing.”  Why do we bow?

Again, it’s a sign of respect, but it is also an acknowledgement of the importance we give to someone else.  All this wandering brought me around to thinking about what that does within us.  When we acknowledge the feeling that someone has importance to us, we are stepping down from our own importance.  We’re allowing them to stand out, to be honored.  At an extreme, we’re showing that we are servant to them, ready and willing.

What’s the sign we have of that acknowledgement today?  We’re so casual in our culture, we’re so about “equal” in our style… is there something that automatically, simply, and without much flourish says, I think you’re important.  It says, I’m here to do anything you might need done because of who you are to me?  The closet I came to as I roved around with “doff” was closing my eyes and bowing my head in prayer.  When I watch a state funeral, or almost any funeral, I see people automatically respond to the request, “Please, pray with me.”

Kobe Bryant’s death, and the death of those with him, including his daughter, has been marked by a flood of tears and piles of symbols in various places to say, “you have importance.”  This almost seems automatic now.  We see it at schools, theaters, playgrounds… wherever tragedy erupts and crushes our hearts under its ash cloud of anguish. More than just grieving over loss, people have struggled to say out loud the importance of Kobe and those who also lost their lives. 

As we have this moment, this shared moment, we have a chance to start to figure out a reaction, that we can move into a practice, that can become an automatic sign of telling each other – You are important.  However you think the world sees you, I see your importance.

I’m off to wander with that for a while… Doff and Don and I are checking out the landscape of acknowledgement… looking at what do I put on and what do I take off for the sake of others.

Blessings,Geoff