Welcome to the
work week -
population: you.
Sometimes I think it is all about me. Everybody in the world is just a
product of my imagination. And that thrills me to no end. I am the
center of the universe, and all my troubles are my own creation.
Yesterday, I wandered out of the apartment, intent on one thing: getting a hair cut.
No. 2 on the sides and fingerlength on top. Sunday bus service sucks, so i take the
heel-toe express down the street. Happen to see the bus coming so I take it to the mall. So much for the exercise.
Long story short, I find myself at the
Barbershop. I wait my turn and realise that I am in a business that
modifies human bodies for money. I have these strange ideas every once in a while. Things we take for normal really aren't once you think about them.
The little
Vietnamese lady that cuts my hair is cheery as you can get on a rainy day. The weather outside is in conflict, sun blazing away and drizzle making rainbows. The hairdresser next to the Vietnamese lady complains about the time change (
Fall-back). This doesn't sit well with her. She tells me that people shouldn't
worry about these silly things.
I am a captive audience. When she arrived from
Vietnam, she had $100 american dollars in her pocket, and she sent $95 home for her family. She knew a little English and that was it. And now
she cuts hair, has kids in University and is married. If she listened to her family in Vietnam, she would not be anywhere. They were all worried and complained about her leaving, she said. She told me worrying is silly, and as I sat there with her hand in my hair, struggling to reach with her little arms, I agreed. She then told me that you have to
take life as it comes. Her husband was freaked out about the
Y2K bug. She laughed at him and told him that
he was not the only one the bug would get, and people would help.
She smiled and beamed, and cut hair like an expert.
When she was done, I paid up and gave her a
stupidly excessive tip, just because she made me smile. She winked at me and said
"See. Life take care of people who live it, not people who fear it."
I walked home in the drizzling rain, smiling and feeling the cold drops on my newly bared head.