The Accidental Comb Over

Written on August 26, but posted today.

I am not sure as to whether I wrote about this subject before, but if
so, it is apparently one that is of interest to me.

A few weeks ago, I was looking in the mirror as I combed my hair, just
as I do every morning, and I decided to use a hand held mirror to "see
the view from the top". To say the least, I was shocked by the degree
to which my hairline had receded. When had this occurred. I checked
my hairline with my hand regularly to make sure that the hair started
just at the two bone bumps on my forehead. As noted before, I looked
at myself every morning and, although the hair was thinner, it still
was in all of the same places. How could I have missed the change.
The pictures of me also did not reveal the procession of hairs
deserting the home and nourishment that I had provided. What had I
done wrong. (This is not to say that the loss of hair is bad or a
negative, but just the surprise of realizing what is taking place
right above my eyes.)

As it turns out, my assumption of the way I looked was based on a
front view at eye level. From that viewpoint, all looked to be in
order for the straight shot gives the personal viewer the best
picture, but not the real picture. To get the real picture, one needs
to view the site (of the desertion) from a multitude of angles,
heights and directions. Once I saw some of those different views, I
began to change the personal picture of my self that I have in my
mind. It is not better or worse, for it is what it is and hairloss
is not something that I am willing to focus on other than for the
amazement that I experience in reformulating my view. It is simply
different.

I was discussing my discovery with Daniel the other day and he was
surprised that I had not realized how I looked. When I asked his
"opinion" of the look (meaning the recent loss hair), he said that he
was used to the look as it had been that way for a long time. Boy dod
my boy make me think oh boy - I was the only one that was clueless.

I now understand how men end up with combovers and how they seem to be
the only ones that don't know how bad they look. First, it is often a
gradual process, changing the part line by a hairwidth at a time.
Second, the view of the infamous combover to whcih the rest of
humanity is treated or. perhps better put, is required to tolerate in
silence, simply is not the same view as the violator of good taste. I
suppose that this is the same for the man who wears a toupee (hair
piece, partial wig, hair extension, rug or skulldugery cover, etc.).
It is all in the point of view.

Thought for the Day: If the way in which people look at themselves in
the mirror provides only a limited view, then all the more so is our
personal picture based on the way in which look at our lives - words,
actions, relationships - and we need to get beyond the sraight on,
evel perspective to gain a full understanding of who we are and how we
are viewed by others. There are many ways to do this starting with
self-examination and reflection. How do we think our lives and
choices are viewed by others and how do we view othes when hey take
similar actions? What reactions are we seeing from those with whom we
interact and what reactions would be expect from those impacted by our
actions or inaction? What do people who have written about life
actions and choices said about similar matters? What do people who
work with people on these matters (therapists, clergy, counselors,
etc) have to offer? In the end, the key is to seek out numerous
perspectives and to develop a fuller and more accuate understanding of
the person we are, and to identify the person we want to be.

I was move to serious thought when I was reading about some different
conceptions of heaven and hell. The one that interested me the most
was the concept of an eternal existence in which each moment of our
life was played back to us from all of the different perspectives -
those who witnessed the moment, those who were impacted by the moment,
and so on - an out of body perspective. With that in mind, would each
of us choose to live our lives differently. This really is the same
concept as discussed in the preceding paragraph in that it causes one
to think in terms of perspectives, viewpoints and impacts.

Finally, this concept seems to find itself (at least from my point of
view) in the various holy books that have been handed doewn and
studied for generations. Some think that the ooks contain the words
of God. Others, like me, think that God would write much more clearly
if God were interested in conveying a direct message of how o live
one's life. Therefore, I think that the works were crafted (with
love, care and thought) by mere (but special humans) who took a god's
eye view of the world and humanity. The writers did not settle for
the straight forward persepctive, but looked from above and below and
from all angles to give a more complete understanding of life,
choices, actions, words and humanity. We can do the same.