Random moment of weirdness

Had a very surreal moment last night while shopping at Target. As I was picking up some Caffeine-free Coke and packages of ready-bake cookies (What? Every writer needs motivation!), I caught a glimpse of a guy, probably younger than I am but close to my age, walking down the main aisle. Something about him must have clicked in my brain but didn't register on the conscious level because when he drew closer, I looked again.

He was wearing a clerical collar. A minister's collar. You know, black shirt with the white plastic insert at the throat? I totally gaped at him. He was so...young! And he had sideburns, long ones--like kind of trendy and stuff. I seriously wanted to follow him and ask him, was he a minister or a priest? What was it like being either one at such a young age?

Now, I know there are young ministers. Duh. I mean, you can graduate with a Masters in Divinity by what, age 23 or 24? I even know people from college who've gone on to be ministers. But I've never seen them in collars so it doesn't seem real to me, I guess. All the ministers I've ever known personally and seen in collars have been older than me. Primarily, this means my dad.

So, I ended up sort of keeping an eye out for the young priest/pastor, though I'm not sure what I would have said, had the opportunity arisen. Turns out he was there with a buddy, ANOTHER young priest/pastor type. How do I know? Because this one too was dressed all in black (couldn't see his collar from where I stood, but he was clean-cut and well-dressed, not Goth), and he held a big bottle of that Woolite stuff that's especially made for black clothing. And the funniest thing was they were kind of goofing around and joking, not acting holy at all. Which, hello, I should know better. It always irritated me when people would forget that my dad was a person as well as minister. In other words, he was just as vulnerable to losing his temper and just as likely to joke around as a normal person. But somehow when I saw these young priest/pastor guys, I managed to forget that.

Anyway, all this made me think of the time I went with my dad to the grocery store while he was wearing his clerical collar. I was young, probably in my teens at the time. Both the cashier and the person bagging the groceries referred to my father as "Father." You know, like "Have a nice day, Father." Or, "Thank you, Father." Freaked me out.

I asked him why he didn't correct them. "Father" meant Catholic priest to me(I was neither wise nor worldly enough at the time to have heard of Episcopalian priests who can marry and have children, I believe). And hello, my dad was wearing a wedding ring and I was standing right there--marriage and children are both kind of no-no's for Catholic priests.

He told me that it was a sign of respect, not just for him but for religion in general, and why should he make them feel bad for doing something good? Essentially. He's often said that people are nicer when they see him in clerical collar. Kind of like slowing down when you see a cop car, right? Huh.