Beards.

Hi all,

I guess my beard is becoming symbolic of my journey at this point.  I like that I'm starting to look like Yukon Cornelius, and I try to be jolly enough to match my face.  It's hard this time of year, remembering family that is no longer around, or spending time far from friends.  People just aren't what they used to be.  Or maybe I'm becoming a different person and some of my friends will just fall away if they aren't on board with who I'm becoming.

I want the world to be better.  I want to help students learn, bring joy into as many situations as I can, and have people like me.  I wouldn't think that would be too much to ask, but lately it has been.  So, the beard allows me to keep my emotions behind the scruff.  It starts conversations, and makes me a caricature of myself.  As the bearded lumberjack, people assume I'm jovial and fun, and so I fall into my role more often than not.  In a way, having a larger than life beard makes me as a person a bit larger than life.

Yes, it's itchy.  Yes, I might look more professional with it trimmed.  Yes, I've lost girlfriends to the beard.  But overall it's worth it.  It's like a witch's hair.  Once shorn, I lose the abilities that come with the beard.  As Gary, "the jacket" used to say when he was an assistant principal, sometimes the clothes make the man.  He wore a jacket every day he was a principal, and it seemed to carry the authority and weight of his position.  People stopped and paid attention just because he looked like he was in charge.  My beard maketh me.  People treat me differently because I'm brawny, big and bearded.  I've been called lumbersexual.  Girls who otherwise might not pay attention to me start conversations randomly about the beard.  It's become my "thing," and as such, it changes how my day goes.  I go into it jovial and positive, and when I can't maintain that level of happiness, I can hide some emotion behind the beard.  Students say things like, "hommes' looks like Santa!" and even when I know they're making fun of me, it makes me happy.

So.  I write, I compose, I teach.  I try to be a good dad to my puppy, a good teacher to my students, a good friend and son and brother.  Through all of this, I think my beard changes my attitude and therefore my day.  Maybe it's a sugar pill, but I choose to believe.

Have a great day all,

~Mark