Symbols of Purity

My mom used baking soda for some cooking yesterday, and the bag was left on the kitchen island. Looking at the logo, I chuckled again at the statement made by the "Arm & Hammer" slogan: "[This is] the standard of purity."

My first reaction to this is always a smirk at the "manliness" factor, and wonder if a brute stereotype for masculinity is being labeled as "pure." I was joking about the traditional symbol of purity, the lily, pitted against a dude with a mallet, when something struck me (not for the first time, come to think of it).

Joseph was a carpenter.

Unwittingly, the baking soda folks have got it right. Perhaps the idea is that the mechanical use of a hammer is more pure than the assistance of machines, maybe they want you to think of such rawness with regard to the soda because of such a branding; but however true these notions are, the message becomes exponential when applied to the saintly craftsman of the Holy Family. Here was a man pure in every sense of the word, in his labor, in his faith, in his chastity.

So for guys who consider a lily too feminine, an arm and hammer (or carpentering tools of some sort) can indeed serve as the masculine variety. This is not to say the lily is weak, nor that the hammer or saw must be toilsome. As symbols, the analogy is what matters. And here are two symbols for the perfectly pure parents of Christ: the flower of Mary and the tools of Joseph.

It would be awesome if the latter became officially recognized as such.