I was recently half-bullied and half-convinced that cleaning up and cutting hair and beard would make me feel better over all in spite of six incurable diseases and the ravages of old age. Well, I fell for that line of reasoning in spite of my lovely reddish-purple psoriasis patches and flaking skin on my face and back of my neck. And, the added push came from a possibly brief respite from facial and neck patches. Things are mostly healed up in the parts you can see. So, now, my wife says I look twenty years younger. (Of course, she probably thought I looked about a hundred and thirty-five with the long hair and beard.)
So, see for yourself what I look like now. It is scary to contemplate. I look almost normal. What kind of protection is that for society in general? Now mothers can’s say to their children, “Let’s go over here, farther away from that creepy old fellow.” There is danger that they might come close enough to hear me tell a joke. Don’t believe me? You should’ve seen the look on the face of that young mother from India who overheard me tell my kids at Walmart, “Milk prices have gone higher than gas prices here. They must have changed to using gas-powered cows for milk.” Really! You’ve should have seen the expression on her face as she heard me say that. It was like she had tasted some of the milk from gas-powered cows. And it got even worse when she overheard my kids agree with me. She was sure that I was an absolute danger to the educational health of her little happy brown children.
I am not certain that I can stay the way I am at the moment. Being a spotty-faced old man again doesn’t have a lot of appeal. But I am not sure I want to go back to Mr. Hairy again, either. I liked the author’s beard and the Gandalf hair, but it had drawbacks of its own too. I shall try this new me for now, and do the best I can to stay this way. So be warned, keep your kids out of earshot. You wouldn’t want to have any of them laugh themselves to death.
Catch a Falling Star 