Hair on a Brick

The last time I cut length off of my hair

     So I made the decision that if I was going to write this blog that I was going to do it with courage and not shy away from the controversial polarizing topics like so many of today's namby pamby bloggers do.  And so today I tackle the question that seems to be on the minds of most people I know or meet, "What's with the hair"?  

     In the course of my lifetime I have sported many a coiffure, and the fact that I can use such a sophisticated word appropriately and in context should display that I am not one with which to trifle.  But the question remains why does a 49 year old conservative (for the most part), respectful (again for the most part) Christian husband father teacher wear his hair like a bass player from a seventies garage band named "Standard Transmission"?  It defies a logical explanation.  And there is the answer, I don't want to be easily explainable.  Oh, there are many other variables that go into this decision including such things as:

• the longer my hair the more it hides the gray
• I like it
• I'm an attention seeking neurotic living in the world of teenagers who can be cruel with their biting comments and notebook characitures 
• it whips around when I drive my convertible 
• but mostly, the easily explainable thing.

 
     There really is a point to be made here and not just the "be a self indulgent narcissist thumbing your nose at society" point.  I believe that people tend to judge the world in five second intervals.  They look at how you're dressed, give you an attractiveness rating, listen to maybe the first sentence your speak, and by then they have your pegged.  Typically it creates a fight, flight, frown, or friend response that is powerful and lasting and up the the perceived rather than the perceiver to change.  It's a hard habit to break because we convince ourselves that our perceptions are always correct.  When was last time that you thought to yourself, "man I was completely wrong about that guy"?  But most of the time the perception is way too shallow and narrow and stereotypical.  I want people to be circumspect about me so that they might be the same about others.  At this point you might be saying something like, "Dude, it's just hair.  Get over yourself."  You would be right to say this; rude and totally 90s, but right.  It really isn't all that big of a deal.  And I'm not claiming it is.  I'm not trying to shake up the world, but I try to do a little here and there to keep people guessing.  So if you see a slightly graying, long haired guy smiling as he walks the streets and beaches of Chicago this summer, don't judge him too quickly.  He might have an ulterior motive.  He might not want to be easily explainable.