Odds and Broken Ends. A Hair Cut Story.

It all began with the drive to be honest.  What should have been a simple drive downtown turned into an experience all its own.

During the Saturday of this past THON weekend at Penn State at approximately 1 pm, I decided it was time to get my hair cut.

As I'm two minutes into the drive an almost overwhelming sense of dread happens.  As the gray clouds hover and the rain drizzles, I am sure that the something today is going to go horribly wrong.  It seemed as obvious as the weather.  Not due to the weather mind you, but I just had this...feeling that something tragic, something incredibly and irrevocably bad was going to happen.

But then the feeling passed and my reason prevailed saying that today would most likely be like any other Saturday.  I would go get my haircut.  I would go to work.  Jeremy Lin would have ten headlines on ESPN.  It would be no different if I had the feeling or not.

Not being a superstitious nor religious person, I found this feeling bizarre.  I had never had a feeling like it before.  It was liked someone dropped the floor from underneath and there is just a sinking or tugging feeling.

And apparently for no reason.

Was it God?  The Devil?  My 'Sixth Sense' awakening?  Just some kind of random chaotic glitch in my mind?  Or just an unexplainable feeling I'm better off not wasting much more time on and better off concentrating on the road?

I went with the last one.

I was now thinking about my haircut and whether or not I should bring up my feeling of dread with whomever was going to be my barber/stylist/hair-cutting person.  I wondered if they would think the way I thought about a feeling like that or just found me nuts.  I thought they might label me as insane, but hey at least they get to talk for a bit and get their minds off their job.  

Conversing with the person cutting your hair seems to produce better results in my opinion.  And even if that's not the case, it at least makes me FEEL like the results are better, producing a sense of confidence that probably shows off more than the haircut in the first place.



There's a lot of traffic.  While I feel that I should be almost to my destination, I am only about half way there.  This would not be a simple in and out hair cut.  It seemed like there was too many people were in town for their business not to get a great influx of people.

But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that this would not be the case.  And after I finally found a parking spot roughly a block away and walked through the door, my thoughts were pretty much confirmed.

While people might be "due" for a haircut on these kinds of days (Home Football games, THON, Arts Fest, any kind of 'reunion' type event really) rarely will the time be spent to do it on the event day or days.  The reasoning, as best I would guess is that the people would rather spend the time with the people that are coming (or that they're visiting) in a meaningful social fashion and not waste time on their personal aesthetics. 

As I arrive, there is a younger couple, in line signing in for a hair cut.  Together.

Now perhaps it's just me, but I find it a bit unusual to go to the same place and get your hair cut at the same time as your partner.  It seems that it would be rare enough that they both would NEED a haircut at the same time, much less talk to each other and agree, to go to the same place.

"Oh hey hun, your hair is getting a bit shaggy"

"Yeah and you keep saying how you want to go with that new style you saw from that girl from the Jersey Shore"

"Yeah, wanna go together?"

"Oh yeah, lets do that!  It'll be fun"

This conversation does not exist.  But if it did, I'm sure it would involve people who wanted to be like the Jersey Shore characters.

And getting your hair cut is not an impromptu decision either.  People typically don't go walking downtown looking for a bite to eat or a coffee and then suddenly say, "Ooh a 'SuperCuts', my lettuce does need a little bit of trimming"

So I decided to ask the girl cutting my hair if this phenomenon happens.  Do couples really go out and get hair cuts together?  While she said that it's not frequent, it DOES happen.  That it's typically a husband and wife and in general they don't think too much of it.  However when I posed the question to her whether she and her boyfriend would ever go at the same time, her reply is more along the lines of what I'd expect. 

"No, I just think it's a personal thing, besides if he gets his haircut while I'm there I can be pretty judgmental right off the bat and it might bring him down"

This brings me to my ultimate conclusion.  Why do we get hair cuts at all?  And while some may say its so that we look professional, or look good to the opposite sex both of which are legitimate reasons, in the end I believe we get them for ourselves.  That we get our haircuts so that WE feel good and have sense of confidence.  Going with someone else and worrying if the other person likes it would deter how the person getting their hair cut would feel independently and reduces confidence in themselves. 

Whether or not my own haircut ended up being good or bad, is probably not for me to say.  I did however leave feeling confident, I felt good, and while the memory of the feeling of dread had not eroded I did believe that the rest of the day was headed for good things. 

THON And The Fight Against Cancer

This is not a topic I particularly enjoy talking about, but it's too important a subject not to.  Because while the topic is in reference to Penn State and THON, the real topic is cancer.

Today, is now two day after the STUDENTS at Penn State raised a record 10.6 million dollars.  

Not for a football team. 

Not for a job.

Not for self-serving

But for those less fortunate than themselves, and to help communities and families make it through the horrors of pediatric cancer.  

Or more simply...'For The Kids'

The news trucks were not there.  CNN, FoxNEWS, ABC news, NBC news, CBS all absent.  So perhaps the world doesn't know about this side of Penn State and Penn Staters everywhere.  

Seeing as how the community appears to be under fire for being secretive, alcoholic, football nuts I want to remind people; I want to make it clear, that THON and the act of bringing awareness, kindness and support to a group that needs help is as much a part of Penn State as anything else.

It took me 27 years to be truly shocked by the disease.  But it cuts to your core when you hear aloud that diagnosis.  A great friend and peer of mine, has recently been informed that he had developed cancerous cells in his leg.   It happened to a great guy, one whom I respect and admire for both his work ethic and sense of humility.

It happened to someone that it seemed like it should never happen to.

To do my part, to support in my own way since I have little in the way of money at the moment, I thought I'd write a blog post.  I'd let people know of other stories, and of how they're lives are affected.  Perhaps that will inspire some one who can afford to donate to charity to do so.

The following is an article I wrote for for a friend to put in a newspaper to help raise awareness and funds for her Relay For Life team.

Hopefully, with a tireless effort by all of us, we can find a way to beat ALL types of cancer.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10 Year Old Makes Difference in Relay For Life Community 

While Relay For Life is a National  event, it is in the smaller communities that the real differences are made.  And within the small communities it is the individual stories that bring people together the most.

              Amri Shepherd is not too different than your average 10 year old girl.  She enjoys cheerleading and the Nickelodeon show iCarly.  She also has another passion right now.  Amri makes bracelets in an effort to help raise money for her Relay For Life team.  Each day after school Amri will take the time to make as many bracelets as she can, typically taking 10-15 minutes for each one with the assistance of her mother, Amanda Shepherd.

              

  “Oh She loves it” says Amanda Shepherd, a sentiment backed up by a slightly giggly Amri.

          

      “She works on them basically whenever she has free time, often right after she gets home from school”

               While she does it in part because as Amri herself says “It’s a good cause”, part of the reason also has to do with fact that the Shepherd family has been touched by cancer themselves.  Her cousin Duncan Mitchelltree was diagnosed with a Wilm’s Tumor roughly 2 years ago.  He has undergone radiation and chemotherapy and is now cancer free.  Amri’s father Tim was diagnosed with a form of kidney cancer, and has had surgery to have the kidney and tumor removed and is doing well.

                Undeterred by her own personal hardships, Amri is upbeat and hopeful that she can make a difference.  Thanks to social media outlets such as Facebook, her Relay For Life team has helped raise over 40,000 dollars, and her bracelets are a hot seller with more than 50 orders already and more pouring in regularly.

The support is not uncommon in Relay For Life circles. 

         “We’re a tightknit group.  If anyone is having trouble we rally around them.” says Amanda Shepherd.  “I now live in Palmer County, but my heart will always be in Phillipsburg, and for the Relay For Life community.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If anyone would like to buy a bracelet you can contact Amri through her mother Amanda Shepherd   

Her home number is 610-559-759

The cost is $10.00

They are wire bracelets with glass beads one size fits all. 

Proceeds benefit American Cancer Society Relay For Life of Phillipsburg being held May 19-20, 2012 at the Phillipsburg High School.  

Lyrics vs. Poetry

I view poems as essentially the lyrics to a song. 

The song may be written with music backing it or but it may also be the music has yet to be played. 

Poetry is really just words being strung together eloquently enough that they stir an emotional response in a desired audience. 

Therefore, I doubt there can be a Universal poetry, because I doubt there is something that can speak to everyone equally.

But try thinking about a song with words.  Any song at all.  From Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star to 'Sweet Child of Mine' by Guns 'N' Roses, 'The Race' by Whiz Khalifa to 'Stronger' by Kelly Clarkson.  Within their own fans, regardless if you yourself are a fan or not, they certainly appear to speak to their audience and galvanize an emotional experience, whether that emotion be sorrow, hate, love, happiness, and anything in between. 

Watch a concert by the Rolling Stones or Dave Matthews or Florence+The Machine.  Watch the reactions within the crowd.  

Watch Lil Wayne, or Jay-Z or Kanye, or Wale.  And then watch the crowd.

Watch Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, or the Foo Fighters.  It's the same with them too.

You'll watch a crowd sing along, but not sing along just because they know the words....But because they feel them too.

Perhaps it takes the music, the heavy banging of drums, raging electric guitars, or beats of whatever musical device you like to give the words more of a form, be it masculine or feminine. 

But the words are what really carry the weight.  It's the words that really 'speak to us'.

Michael Jackson in 'Man in The Mirror'

Tupac Shakur in 'Changes'

Green Day 'Jesus Of Suburbia'

The list could go on forever.

Now I grant you, in all of these cases it probably takes the musical backing as well to help show the words.  But in the end it will be the words that we find most memorable.

Poetry can be sexual

Poetry can be romantic

This is possibly the most common view of poetry, since we've all heard of the story of some dude trying to send poems to some chick and then either a) The girl finding this sweet, or b) Corny as shit

But poetry can also be political

Confrontational

Angry

Symbolic

Intelligent

And in this way poetry is more diverse and dynamic than many other mediums.  For your only limitations are your own language.

There are other ways to think of poetry, I don't think this is the only way, but this is the way that I predominantly view that art form.

P.S.
Speaking of song lyrics that may qualify as Poetry.  Try out 'These Days' by the Foo Fighters.  You can download the video for free today (2/6) on Itunes.