Hair today...
So the IV nurse showed up about 7:00 pm, so I've been on chemo for about an hour and a half.
My hair hasn't started falling out yet.
It's still luxurious.
Male pattern baldness doesn't run in my family--luxurious hair does. So I'll be the second bald guy in our family--my brother Allen shaved his head once in college. He looked pretty good, but at the time he weighed about 60 pounds more than I do now.
I remember when I had long hair in college and cut it before graduation. I got a little weepy. Back then I NEVER cried, so it was a big deal. But for the last ten years or so, I've been a little more in touch with my emotional, sensitive side, and I tear up in church, or at a good story, or when my 3-year-old goes poop on the potty. I haven't cried at a Hallmark commercial yet, or at least I'm not going to admit it. Some of those Volkswagen commercials, though--you've gotta admit they're poignant.
All the Men's Men writers I've read, though, say it's good to be a warrior, but it's also good to cry. John Eldrege, Stu Weber, King David, etc. I was visiting a class of Robert Bly's once with my friend Aaron--Bly is a poet and the author of Iron John among many other things, and he wears a cowboy hat--and he wept openly in front of us. Jane Kenyon, another poet and a good friend, had just died. Bly later told us that he wished we had gotten up and hugged him.
Bly likes to say that the road between a woman's mind and heart is a superhighway, but for a man it's like a windy country road.
All this to say, I think it will be okay and not unmanly if I get a little moist-eyed over my hair loss.
Which should happen in about a week, by the way. The nurse said it will happen in 7-14 days, depending on how fast my hair grows. And my hair grows faster than the federal deficit. Luxurious, remember.
I'm not bragging about the luxuriousness, by the way. It's simply a matter of genetics. Besides, it's going to be gone in a week, so it would be silly to brag.
So the minute it starts falling out, We'll shave it. No need to stretch out the pain.
And I won't be so, so out of place. I've noticed these days more than just frat pledges are shaving their heads. My friend Dale showed up today with a shaved head, and I can think of other friends and aquaintances--Eric, Ben, Joe, Knerr, Micheal Jordan, Seal, Chris from church. Of course, I'll look more like Micheal Stipe than Micheal Jordan, but that's not the point.
The point is, the hair's gotta go, and I can't do a thing about it. So I'll find a couple of good hats for the winter, and resist the temptation to get a scalp tattoo.
For now.
My hair hasn't started falling out yet.
It's still luxurious.
Male pattern baldness doesn't run in my family--luxurious hair does. So I'll be the second bald guy in our family--my brother Allen shaved his head once in college. He looked pretty good, but at the time he weighed about 60 pounds more than I do now.
I remember when I had long hair in college and cut it before graduation. I got a little weepy. Back then I NEVER cried, so it was a big deal. But for the last ten years or so, I've been a little more in touch with my emotional, sensitive side, and I tear up in church, or at a good story, or when my 3-year-old goes poop on the potty. I haven't cried at a Hallmark commercial yet, or at least I'm not going to admit it. Some of those Volkswagen commercials, though--you've gotta admit they're poignant.
All the Men's Men writers I've read, though, say it's good to be a warrior, but it's also good to cry. John Eldrege, Stu Weber, King David, etc. I was visiting a class of Robert Bly's once with my friend Aaron--Bly is a poet and the author of Iron John among many other things, and he wears a cowboy hat--and he wept openly in front of us. Jane Kenyon, another poet and a good friend, had just died. Bly later told us that he wished we had gotten up and hugged him.
Bly likes to say that the road between a woman's mind and heart is a superhighway, but for a man it's like a windy country road.
All this to say, I think it will be okay and not unmanly if I get a little moist-eyed over my hair loss.
Which should happen in about a week, by the way. The nurse said it will happen in 7-14 days, depending on how fast my hair grows. And my hair grows faster than the federal deficit. Luxurious, remember.
I'm not bragging about the luxuriousness, by the way. It's simply a matter of genetics. Besides, it's going to be gone in a week, so it would be silly to brag.
So the minute it starts falling out, We'll shave it. No need to stretch out the pain.
And I won't be so, so out of place. I've noticed these days more than just frat pledges are shaving their heads. My friend Dale showed up today with a shaved head, and I can think of other friends and aquaintances--Eric, Ben, Joe, Knerr, Micheal Jordan, Seal, Chris from church. Of course, I'll look more like Micheal Stipe than Micheal Jordan, but that's not the point.
The point is, the hair's gotta go, and I can't do a thing about it. So I'll find a couple of good hats for the winter, and resist the temptation to get a scalp tattoo.
For now.
Comments
Prayers coming your way from Nashville.
Love, Uncle David and Aunt Beth.
And DUDE, a scalp tattoo would be so cool! As cool as, say, Boy George!