A Word on Being in Plainclothes

Though this is my second blog for “Plainclothes,” it seems an occasion to explain what I didn’t explain in my first post last week.

Why have I named my new blog “Plainclothes”?

I have a few reasons. First, I happen to like the sound of it. Plainclothes has a nice ring.

Second, I like what it suggests. Probably the first image it conjures is a police officer going undercover to observe, to get to essentials. It suggests someone at the scene of someting important not wanting to reveal that he or she is, in fact, a cop, a professional. He or she doesn’t want people to act out of character because an authority, or someone in a uniform, is present.

This works for me. In an age of “certification,” going in plainclothes suggests the opposite tendency to "disappearing" in the uniform. When everyone wants to be “licensed,” but that licensing means adherence to a “professional group” more than it does expertise or even competence, it suggests to me a lack of professional psychosis. In plainclothes, I just might retain an ability to identify with human frailty. It suggests someone who hasn’t pledged an allegiance quite yet. It suggests an attempt to share common ground while also paying close attention, perhaps for reasons others don’t share.

I like this.

It fits what Jack Ridl, an award winning poet and one of my favorite writing teachers, suggested is the attitude of the writer. It is to be present and observing, taking note of how others present and express themselves.

I first had the idea for this when I put the word “plainclothes” together, not with cop, but with “theologian.” In fact, I was going to name a nonfiction essay I was working on “Musings of a Plainclothes Theologian.” This seemed fitting for someone to write who has no degrees or formal training in the field, but has certain concerns and hunches, like most people, simply because he’s alive.

Plainclothes also suggests the everyday nature of life. It suggest the opposite, not only of uniforms, but also of costumes, which, as I think about it, might be fun to put on. It is fun to pretend to be someone or something else on occasion. I suppose that for a blog named "Plainclothes," there might be occasions to get dressed up.

But for the most part, that’s what I mean by the title of my blog. Plainclothes. It is both a ruse—going undercover, for the most part, to hide in plain sight—and it is to put on no airs whatsoever, to be present without the need for a licensing body to say I can be.

I welcome the input and thoughts of others plainclothes types. May we find some common ground here.