before and after

well today was "cut for a cure" day at my school and there was feverish anticipation on the parts of the families of the participants, the participants themselves and of course the onlookers as the fateful hour rolled around. the gym was packed with children and parents and staff and the events unfolded very smoothly. the principal, three teachers, a student and a parent all sat dutifully in their chairs on the stage as the clippers sparked and smoked and chewed their way through the hair of young and old alike.
when my turn came to get the clip the noise level in the crowd rose to an amazing level and only dipped when it appeared as if the woman doing the clipping had stopped. what i didn't realize was that one of my colleagues had asked my "hairdresser" to stop when everything was clipped off except for a lovely mohawk down the middle of my head. at that point she announced to the throng that they could choose if i kept the 'hawk or lost it but they had to pay for me to keep it. amazingly several of my colleagues sauntered up and added fifty dollars more to the pot bringing the total we raised to $1950 dollars. not bad for a south end school!
the cut itself was not a high quality cut but it made the point. when i got home i phoned a friend up who works at a nearby salon and asked if she was up for cleaning my head up. luckily she was. no charge! nice.
so here i am before . . . . . early morning . . . . . sun streaming through the slats of the front window blinds.

and here i am after . . .

i love the fuzzy feel of my scalp. i love the feeling of air and rain on my scalp. i could run my hands over it endlessly. it's fascinating. looking at my head i see steven has kept so much of the very young steven in his presence. not just his appearance but who he is. a threadbare teddy bear.