OCT 6, 22 .. MY HAIR .. REINCARNATION .. BUDDHISM .. COVID-19 BRAIN FOG

If you got here, I can see you’ve ignored several of my subtitles above : Buddhism : Covid-19 Brain Fog : Delete Before Reading : Wandering The Streets of My Mind : Who Cares Captain!

Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

I guess if you are a true friend you’ll continue on with us.

My Hair

September 1949 was the month and the year when my personal challenges with my hair really began with me.

Up until this, one of the defining moments of my entire life to date, my hair wasn’t really that  important an issue with me. Let me say that it was a nagging issue under the surface of my mind that I hadn’t really addressed.

Then, suddenly, on that one long ago and fateful day, one I remember clear-as-a-bell, my hair exploded into an issue with me.

I had just turned 13 years old. It was lunch hour at Junior High. I was in the ground floor Boys Room of Oakridge Junior High School (long ago demolished) at 13-Mile Road and Rochester Road in Royal Oak, Michigan. As I was standing at the mirror combing my hair, I found myself fussing and fretting about my hair. To this instant, my hair simply will not do what I want it to do : Lay down flat and behave like so many others that I see.

Suddenly the thought occurred to me : “It is lunch hour. I have time. I AM going to go across Rochester Road to the local barber shop and get my hair cut short like I see so many of the WWII military veterans wearing their hair!” 

And out and off I went. And I had my hair cut short, to the scalp.

God spoke : “My Son! Atta Boy! The United States Marine Corps is waiting for you!”

From that instant on my parents, unlike those parents with sons who had shoulder length hair and wished they would cut it short, would longingly ask me when I was going to let my hair grow out! And, from time-to-time, I would let it grow out into a ‘brush cut’.

For many decades I have cut my own hair. It is easier than simple! I can, and I do, cut it the instant I want it cut. And? Me cutting my own hair is absolutely free!

– – – – – – – – 

Reincarnation

The action of reincarnating : The state of being reincarnated : Rebirth in new bodies or forms of life especially : A rebirth of a soul in a new human body.

BUDDHISM

Buddhists believe that when someone dies, they will be reborn again as something else. What they are reborn as depends on their actions in their previous life (kamma ). The cycle of rebirth is called samsara and it is an ongoing cycle of life, death and rebirth.

BUDDHISM AND HAIR

Ridding yourself of hair serves as a symbol of renunciation of worldly ego and fashion. In Buddhism, shaving your head (and face) is part of Pabbajja. Pabbajja is when a person leaves their home and “goes forth” to live the life of a Buddhist renunciate among ordained monks. It is a paramount step to becoming a monk.

Make no doubt about it : I have spent a considerable amout of time in Buddhist countries and I honor and I find very interesting many of the facets of the Buddhist belief system.

How about this from the Dalai Lama !

An absolutely outstanding concept!

– – – – – – – –

TODAY’S RHETORICAL QUESTION 

Am I a reincarnated Buddhist? I don’t think that I am BUT what do we really know about this life we are living?

– – – – – – – –

COVID-19 BRAIN FOG

Covid-19 Brain Fog is what I am really writing about in this post. This Brain Fog has affected many other cognitive areas of my daily life. So I am NOT writing only about how it affected my ‘decision-making’ regarding my hair per se. 

If you have not experienced Covid-19 Brain Fog, you really have no idea as to what it is and how it can affect your life. It comes with no physical pain. You don’t feel physically bad because of Brain Fog. But your cognitive thinking in many areas of you life becomes muddled and unclear.

Below is a photo of how I have been wearing my hair for, not years but decades. It has been quite a long time since I have let my hair grow-out.

Last May 19th 2022, both Patti and I were diagnosed in a Royal Oak, Michigan, hospital Emergency Room, with the new strain of Covid-19, commonly known as Omicron BA.5. You want unfair? Here is unfair !! On April 26th 2022, three short weeks before we were infected with Omicron BA.5, both Patti and I had received our fourth Covid immunization! Two basic immunizations (Jan and Feb 2021) and two booster shots (Oct 2021 and Apr 2022).

So? 

What I am now going to write here sounds absolutely, incredibly, silly and downright unbelievable! 

Back in mid-May, as we were infected with Covid-19, with no intention on my part,  I seemingly began to let my hair grow-out. In spite of my passion for short hair, for the absolute life-of-me, I could not make the decision and take the action and cut it. Below is a photo as it was growing-out. See I really DO have hair! I am not bald. I cut it by choice.

And out it continued to grow! Each and every single day I thought, “I don’t want to have to deal with this hair!” I can’t stand having to comb it. My scalp itches. My CPAP (sleep apnea machine) presses my hair down into a matted mess so I had to wash it daily to groom it.

And? I could NOT take the action to cut it.

Here comes the real ‘mind problem’ for yours truly. I DO look pretty good with hair! 

Maybe, from a world prospective, I look better with my hair longer than with it cut short! 

And again, daily, multiple times daily, I kept complaining to Patti and to myself about it growing out!

Finally, YESTERDAY, after five months of continuous indecision, I said .. Thank You Hugh Connors ..

WHANG IT !

I’M CUTTING MY HAIR !

But, before I made the bold move, I asked Patti IF she would like me to get just one haircut. Patti was neutral as she always has been. After all, THE Cap that Patti knows has always, with several exceptions, had short hair.

So I priced hair cuts. Oh My Oh My ! Two of Patti’s favorite (and here I thought they would give me a deal !) hair stylists quoted me forty ($40) dollars. A ‘fast cut’ place quoted me eighteen ($18) dollars.

Step One. I tried to leave just-a-little hair on the top. One of my very best friends wears his hair in a Mohawk! Below is my version of my Mohawk.

Patti howled : “I don’t like THAT look Cap. Cut it short all over!”

So I finished off the project !

Oh My Goodness! Does it feel great to have put the issue (do I cut it or don’t I cut it) behind us.

And? I CAN always, IF I so decide, grow-it-out again.

But I, Your Captain, will make that decision, not based on the opinion of the world out there.

Want to end with an odd fact?

Never, Not Ever, Not One Single Solitary Time, has anyone (from close friends to close associates) said one single word to me about my hair being longer.

Smiling the two of us ..

Cap and Patti

Today’s real RHETORICAL QUESTION :

Does this mean, that by my finally deciding to, and then successfully taking the action to cut my hair, that I am getting some relief from my long Covid-19 Brain Fog symptom?

• ← OCT 5, 22 .. BE GLAD YOU HAD THE MOMENT ..
• OCT 7, 22 .. FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH →