For today's Berea Home Village committee meeting, I'm dressing up with red and silver diagonal stripes. I hadn't worn this tie since August 2022. It came to me in 2020 from Jennifer Woodruff Tait, when she gave me several ties from her uncle's collection.
It's National Secondhand Wardrobe Day! So I am sporting a tie and tie clip given to me by Jennifer Woodruff Tait two years ago, originally from the wardrobe of her uncle. But this is also the 1697th anniversary of the adoption of the "Nicene Creed," by the Council of Nicaea, establishing the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and so I've tied myself up with the Trinity Knot! (And my tie clip bears a Celtic cross.)
I just learned that 1 February is National Freedom Day, marking the date in 1865 when the 13th Amendment began the process toward ratification. This is the amendment to the Constitution that ended slavery, America's "original sin." It was "original" in the sense that it was codified into the foundations of our nation, from the 1600s through 1865. National Freedom Day was first proclaimed by President Truman in 1947. My tie for freedom shows bold red and white-silver stripes, and I'm wearing it on a field of blue. Those colors symbolize liberty, equality and "brotherhood" for many nations of the world.
