Tuesday - Ribbon

[ninanevermore]

Today on the drive into work, I noticed a man walking past a bus stop. He was tall and lanky, with worn blue jeans and a shabby gray tee shirt that has seen better days. He had a dingy look about him that said that whenever his last bath was, it wasn't as recent as this morning or last night.

But his facial hair was trimmed as neat and artistically as the hedge around a well-kept garden. His beard was was a half-inch wide ribbon that traced his jawline, then avoided his chin and mouth by curving up into a mustache that came down on the other side of his face to follow his jawline back up toward his ear.

He did not bother with mending his clothes or fret over decent shoes, but his beard was his pride and joy, his sculpted, crafted, artistic statement to the world. With a beard so lovingly cared for, so perfectly rendered, what did he need to bother with that other stuff?

I only wish I had one thing about me that I could take such pride in, that I could put before the world and say, "This represents me. This is my glory. Behold me. Admire me. Adore me."

Comments

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

1) I am very good at an art form that everyone hates.

Being a talented poet is like being a talented baker of fruitcakes. Even though you, personally, might know how to make a fruitcake that is moist and yummy and delicious, the general public has already made up it's collective mind that fruitcakes are nasty.

There is a good reason for this: the average fruitcake is, indeed, nasty.

For that matter, the average poem is bad, non inspiring, insipid, stupid and lame. The average poet reading on a microphone makes a bad poem even worse by delivering it in such a way that makes the people listening pray for death - either their own, to get them away from the misery on the stage, or that of the poet, which is usually well deserved.

I can touch people's emotions; I can make them laugh and make them cry with the same poem. I can give them clarity and insight into things that they previously didn't have. On the microphone, I am entertaining, because I believe that a person on a microphone has an obligation to engage and entertain an audience, otherwise it's all pointless self indulgence. A fat lot of good that this does me. People hate poets. Hell, even I hate poets, and I *am* one.

2) I'm a pretty mediocre mother. Jeff is a better mother than I am. I think I may be a good father. Our son is going to grow up VERY confused.

[noblwish.livejournal.com]

#1. "For that matter, the average poem is bad, non inspiring, insipid, stupid and lame."

That just makes you all the more special!

#2. "Our son is going to grow up VERY confused."

Well, if that's all, then I'd say you were a pretty good parent. What's the worst that could happen? His confusion leads to a reality show where he shares domestic tips with four other, um, "friends?" ;)

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

*groan* Not that there's anything wrong with that, but he *is* my only shot at grandchildren, so I'm hoping no.