Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Life's embarrassing moments recently caught up with me. I admit there is a monumental fickle side of me which actually is not readily apparent. It involves my serial rotation of hair stylists over the past twenty years. I've lost count how many different ones there have been and my reasons for moving on and trying someone else were oddly superficial and capricious. Perhaps I just grew bored and wanted to try someone new. There was never any conflict or misunderstanding just my eventual disappearance and vanishing act. No explanation whatsoever, the girl has moved on.

A disparate ideal that hair stylists seem to possess is the notion that their patrons will stay loyal to them. In my case I acknowledge a lack of fidelity, unabashed whim, wanting to see what the next cosmetician has to offer. Most of the hair dressers I have had were very nice and had pleasant personalities. Their only sin perhaps is allowing complacency to occur, familiarity leading to a less exciting okayness and loss of edgy excitement involving my tresses.

So today I sneak out of work (official time off arranged), however it is so delicious to just walk out the door early to pamper oneself a tiny bit. I arrive at the hair salon and my stylist is just finishing up with her previous customer. There are always things to discuss and safe topics far from politics and religion to weigh in on including celebrity gossip and post holiday settling down of winter. I believe that a successful hair dresser probably has well developed social skills and allows their customer to ramble on and set the tone of the conversation. Nothing too involved, after all it is a beauty parlor. She gives me a nice hair cut which I acknowledge appreciably and leave a generous tip. Off I go and a stop at the local grocery store before I head for home to cook dinner.

Who do I encounter in the grocery isle but my former hair dresser. She looks at me and smiles and behaves exceedingly polite and gracious at our unplanned rendezvous. We chat about the holidays, make small talk and rather quickly run out of nice things to say. I am absolutely mortified because it is quite evident by my well coiffed appearance I just left the hair salon. I stammer embarrassingly and we part. I appreciated her diplomacy but would have liked to apologize but then my explanation would have been altogether awkward. What can I say, "I just wasn't feeling it anymore".

Coincidences like that are karma's way of keeping us on our toes, but let's not split hairs.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

KNOWING

There are different levels of awareness people possess, how they perceive others, and also how others perceive them. Some things are a matter of perception. We cannot continually go around always worrying about offending others or we'd be a neurotic mess. It also requires growing thick skin, or perhaps learning to be tolerant of others.

The longer I exist on this planet the more amazed (and confused) I grow regarding the complexity of human behavior and emotions. We all have a lot to learn about ourselves and others. Be open, do not judge, ask yourself did someone intend to be inconsiderate and hurtful or are they just unaware. It is often hard to give someone feedback without hurting their feelings. How sensitive we all can be.

We all have our issues, and they are different for each one of us. Awareness of what your issues are requires self knowledge; what kinds of things push your buttons. My list is long and I will not go into the details however most recently I seem to allow myself to be bothered most by "know it alls". I actually believe people might not even know when they are behaving that way and no one is likely to tell them, so how are they to know?