awesomely bad facial hair
". . . you don't realize how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary." ~Screwtape in C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters
As a practical joke on our friends Chris and Mandy, the three of us from Miami that were groomsmen in their wedding decided to grow out some facial hair before their big day. They hadn't seen us in a couple of months and wouldn't before we arrived on the day of the rehearsal. This joke was really to accomplish two things (1) to see if Matt could actually grow facial hair - he started four weeks before we arrived at the wedding and actually managed a spectacular molestache (2) to try and throw Chris off. We had managed to do it once before when we threw him a surprise party, but the man is a rock.
The night before the three of us left for Indy, I had to create a masterpiece. It is one thing to just show up with a beard; it is another to go with some serious chops and a chin-strap!
I know, it is a thing of beauty and you just can't contain yourself in the ethereal glow of its awesomeness. Matt on the other hand looks like he needs to be wearing a leisure suit.
The prank was funny and really threw Mandy's father and Chris's mother off though Chris and Mandy both contained their shock pretty well. Oh, and my favorite, the presiding minister shot me some looks that I'm sure were "in brotherly love." They were all very relieved when we shaved before the wedding.
The reason I write though is for our journey, not our destination or the final results. When we first discussed the prank, I didn't really think of the fact that we were going to have to travel looking like whatever we came up with. We left out of the Ft. Lauderdale airport and had to transfer in Philadelphia. I was in jeans, a t-shirt, and the John Deere hat (because it truly completed the look). I was amazed at the looks like I got - and they weren't checking me out because they wanted to break themselves off a piece of my fine self. The laughs and giggles were fun too.
I really liked to think of myself being above concern for what others thought of me or how they viewed me, especially strangers in passing. I've never really been apart of the "in crowd" in my life and in high school I decided I didn't really care. I embraced my inner-dork and it has been incredibly freeing. Going to a school full of them helped a bit too ;) All that being said, I realized that I still had a desire to seem "ordinary," as C.S. Lewis puts it. By the time we got to the Indianapolis airport, I was enjoying it though. I liked that people automatically made assumptions about who I was and I knew I wasn't that person at all. I could see the comments in their eyes as we passed. I'll admit that there were times when I wanted to prove it to them so I could shove their assumptions in their faces, but I had to turn the situation around on myself. How often do I look at someone and judge them for how they look? Or assume that I know who they are because of what they're dressed like?
When I shaved that night, I was kind of sad to see the persona wash down the drain, but I would have felt like I was ruining Chris and Mandy's wedding pictures. I'm not sure that any of us truly realize how enslaved we are to the ordinary, the norm, society, our preconceived ideas of what someone else might think of us. Oh to loose these tethers. . . . and this all from a beard.
As a practical joke on our friends Chris and Mandy, the three of us from Miami that were groomsmen in their wedding decided to grow out some facial hair before their big day. They hadn't seen us in a couple of months and wouldn't before we arrived on the day of the rehearsal. This joke was really to accomplish two things (1) to see if Matt could actually grow facial hair - he started four weeks before we arrived at the wedding and actually managed a spectacular molestache (2) to try and throw Chris off. We had managed to do it once before when we threw him a surprise party, but the man is a rock.
The night before the three of us left for Indy, I had to create a masterpiece. It is one thing to just show up with a beard; it is another to go with some serious chops and a chin-strap!
I know, it is a thing of beauty and you just can't contain yourself in the ethereal glow of its awesomeness. Matt on the other hand looks like he needs to be wearing a leisure suit.
The prank was funny and really threw Mandy's father and Chris's mother off though Chris and Mandy both contained their shock pretty well. Oh, and my favorite, the presiding minister shot me some looks that I'm sure were "in brotherly love." They were all very relieved when we shaved before the wedding.
The reason I write though is for our journey, not our destination or the final results. When we first discussed the prank, I didn't really think of the fact that we were going to have to travel looking like whatever we came up with. We left out of the Ft. Lauderdale airport and had to transfer in Philadelphia. I was in jeans, a t-shirt, and the John Deere hat (because it truly completed the look). I was amazed at the looks like I got - and they weren't checking me out because they wanted to break themselves off a piece of my fine self. The laughs and giggles were fun too.
I really liked to think of myself being above concern for what others thought of me or how they viewed me, especially strangers in passing. I've never really been apart of the "in crowd" in my life and in high school I decided I didn't really care. I embraced my inner-dork and it has been incredibly freeing. Going to a school full of them helped a bit too ;) All that being said, I realized that I still had a desire to seem "ordinary," as C.S. Lewis puts it. By the time we got to the Indianapolis airport, I was enjoying it though. I liked that people automatically made assumptions about who I was and I knew I wasn't that person at all. I could see the comments in their eyes as we passed. I'll admit that there were times when I wanted to prove it to them so I could shove their assumptions in their faces, but I had to turn the situation around on myself. How often do I look at someone and judge them for how they look? Or assume that I know who they are because of what they're dressed like?
When I shaved that night, I was kind of sad to see the persona wash down the drain, but I would have felt like I was ruining Chris and Mandy's wedding pictures. I'm not sure that any of us truly realize how enslaved we are to the ordinary, the norm, society, our preconceived ideas of what someone else might think of us. Oh to loose these tethers. . . . and this all from a beard.
posted by Sojourner at 6:15 PM
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