Hi,
This is Clay Stevenson,
And welcome to of Mice and Moments,
A podcast that finds significance in the small moments.
From what I can tell from pictures of my ancestors and from my immediate family,
I come from a long line of remarkably handsome bald men.
I distinctly remember a dream I had on multiple occasions when I was in my twenties.
In my dream,
I would wake up in my dream,
Get out of bed,
Walk into the bathroom,
And look into the mirror.
Staring back at me would be a bald man.
I would reach up,
Touch my head,
And feel no hair.
Upon actually waking,
I would reach up,
Touch my hair,
And feel an immense relief that this was only a dream.
My hair was still there,
And it felt great.
I'm sure you've had those dreams before,
Not necessarily ones where you went bald,
But those dreams where upon waking you feel so relieved that the tragedy of your dream is not reality.
Well,
One of mine was about hair.
So thank God the process of losing my hair wasn't an instantaneous event,
Like in my dream.
In reality,
I had time to prepare.
I had time to watch my forehead grow a little bigger and my hair fall back a little bit further,
And during the process,
I started cutting my hair shorter and shorter.
Once,
When coming to work after a fairly drastic haircut,
During which I had lopped off many brown beautiful curls,
A colleague said,
Wow,
Clay,
You had a lot of face under that hair.
Hair is one of those things in our culture that screams youth.
Angie will often comment positively on the older gentleman she notices with a lot of hair.
There's something of vitality in hair for a man,
And through time,
I grew to realize that genetics had made a decision that hair was not for me.
Of course,
I had a choice.
I could have done something about that.
Through technology and medicine,
I could have taken measures to maintain my main.
But in the end,
I decided to let nature take its course and accept a future of no hair.
I decided to commit to this season of life in which I could let my face shine and all of its glory.
I would commit to the simple task of taking a razor to my head every other day.
Instead of going to the barber,
Waiting in line and paying someone else to cut my hair,
I would happily embrace this opportunity to wake up every morning without worry about what my hair looked like and commit to a future of being able to roll down the windows in the car,
Letting in fresh gusts of air in ways I wasn't comfortable with before I could wear a hat at any time with no concern for hat hair.
I even got back time giving up shampoo for good,
Saving myself five minutes in the shower and five minutes drying after whereas once it was a nightmare.
My future began looking up all because of going bald.
As I was out driving the other day,
Listening to the audio version of Game of Thrones by George RR Martin,
A quote by the character Tyrion Lannister piqued my imagination.
Tyrion was born with dwarfism into a royal family and while afforded luxuries other commoners didn't have,
He was nonetheless merely tolerated by the royalty and those with station in life.
He was speaking to Jon Snow,
The bastard of Winterfell,
Born to a northern king but not accepted into the royal family as his half brothers and sisters and ostracized for things out of his control.
Tyrion offered him advice on how to handle his situation.
Tyrion said,
Never forget what you are.
The rest of the world will not wear it like armor,
And it can never be used to hurt you.
That quote had me consider the things about myself in my life that bothered me.
What are those things?
What about me isn't quote normal?
The things I have little control of that caused me such insecurity?
There are quite a few.
How about you?
What is your disadvantage or disability that causes you stress and suffering?
Can you wear it as your armor?
Can you accept that thing about yourself in such a way that it is stripped of its power?
Can you own it and rid yourself of the insecurity it causes?
In doing so,
You may find an advantage and allow yourself to roll down the windows of life letting the gusts of fresh air blow away your insecurities,
Leading you to the freedom and peace you deserve.
