Day 44 (Forty-four) of 365 days
Purity of heart in action, especially, in regards to dress and speech. Modesty helps us dress in a way that safeguards our dignity. While we usually think of immodesty as not wearing enough clothing, one can also be guilty of being excessively modest or prudish.
Modesty in speech encourages patience and moderation in relationships. In the age of social media, the virtue of modesty is grossly missing. It is a virtue necessary for purity and flows out of the virtues of temperance, chastity, and self-control.
Modesty means more, not less. It is not to be timid or meek but a way of being in the world that means you don’t get in the way of life. Sometimes, when I think about modesty, I can say that the talk of modesty seems hopelessly outdated. Even the word ‘modesty’ evokes the kind of religious prudishness that produced purity rings, and innumerable unrequested rhetorical questions of the “Isn’t that skirt a bit short?” kind. Too flashy? Showing too much skin? So immodest.
If modesty sucks so bad, then why did I spend so much of my time thinking about it? Because, despite all the unsavory accumulated baggage that modesty has acquired over the years. I think there is something there that is not only one of the important goods of life but is actually quite life-affirming.
The aspect of modesty that is most fascinated is its elusiveness. Modesty, in the sense that’s opposed to bragging, is something that you can’t really brag about. It’s okay to say that other people are modest but saying “I’m modest” is usually either self-undermining or meant as a joke.
It’s the kind of thing that has to be kept out of view because self-awareness spoils it. If you have it, you won’t realize it — and if you think you’ve got it, you really don’t.
Modesty is therefore about what you care about, and how that changes your experience of the world. It isn’t about covering our bodies because they are bad, it isn’t about hiding ourselves, but about revealing our dignity.
