Well, I've shaved twice in the past three days so it looks as though I will have to bid adieu to my big bearded dreams. When a man grows a beard people tend to ignore it and him--that's very much the point. When a woman grows a beard I suppose it's much different. For one thing her employment horizons change with old opportunities closing off (make-up counter), and new ones opening up (traveling sideshow) .
As a once bearded man, I will say that the comments you do get are well worth the lack of effort.
When I was much younger, I went two weeks without shaving and my mum told me I looked like Judas. I asked what she meant, and she said that I looked like a painting of Judas she had seen when she was a little girl. I kept that beard for a few months, how could I not? It was nearly blasphemous.
Last week, my boss asked me if I knew what a beard signified in certain cultures. I said, "homeless?" She told me no, it was a sign of grieving. I suppose I was trying to physically give shape to my heartbreak and hide out a little bit--I still have to see the girl who broke my heart 12 hours a week.
But for now, like Billy Mays, I'm oxyclean. In the picture above he seems to be hunkering down for some cross country motorcycle mayhem. I love that Billy Mays.
It's kinda funny, we have a German stainless steel blade my grandfather took off a dead German in WWII, I don't think you can shave with it. How coarse the hair... how fast it grows...
(it does read like an epitaph)
RIP -- My almost beard (born 13.01.06, died 25.01.06)
