The Haircut
Yesterday, I had a haircut. The guy who cuts my hair is a stylist that cuts both men’s and women’s hair. After several years of cutting my hair, he knows that I will have washed my hair before coming there and won’t use hairspray. This makes it easier for him because he does not have to shampoo my hair prior to the cut.
He usually sprays it down with some water to cut it. After he is done cutting, he dries and styles it according to what he thinks would be best for my face. Usually, this is kinda slicked back (more than I normally wear it slicked back) or parted on the side (I haven’t parted my hair on the side since 3rd grade). The last thing he does is spray some hairspray on it to hold the style. The hairspray has a noticeable smell to it (not good or bad) that I can smell most of the rest of the day.
Immediately after my hair cut, I went to a performance class. This is a music class of 4 students, who’s objective is to go over difficult pieces or pursue playing possibilities. Yesterday, one student was absent and the other two were working on music for a performance tonight (that I’m not involved in nor do I want to be). The teacher wanted to work on those sections for which I didn’t have the music (neither did the teacher), so I shared the music with one young lady and the teacher shared with the other young lady.
Let’s be honest. The young lady that I was to share music with, besides being 35 years younger than me, is beautiful and, based on previous conversations, I know has a boyfriend in Wichita. I also am cognizant of the hairspray that the stylist just used and that it might be not pleasant to her. So, I was trying to give her as much space as I could.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, that a lot of these students don’t use paper music but store the music on their iPad with a foot pedal to turn the page. This and the fact that the young woman had one of the smaller screen iPads (and my aging eyes) put me at a disadvantage. She saw I was having trouble seeing the music and, not wanting to invade my space, kept turning the music stand with her iPad towards me so I could see the music.
That is when I realized that my definition of beauty has changed over the course of my life. It used to be that beauty was defined primarily on physical looks and secondary of other attributes. Today, I’d say that was the opposite. I consider personality to be much more of an important determinant of beauty than physical looks. The kindness that she showed me of turning the stand towards me so that I could see the music better was part of her gorgeous personality that I reflect in my overall assessment of her beauty. Thank goodness I’ve reached the age where younger women are less likely to worry about whether I’m hitting on them or not.
“If you do not know, O most beautiful among women, follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents. I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels. Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.” - Song of Solomon 1:8-10, 15 ESV
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”- Galatians 5:16-24
I see more beauty today than I’ve ever seen before and, I think, I’m still missing out on a large portion of it in God’s creation. I believe the less I focus on myself and more on God, my sight of beauty will expand even more.
