I finally got to the barber yesterday. There has been a lapse in “self-care” lately. So I had her shave my head so I wouldn’t have to worry about self-care for a while. (That’s actually a joke, but it might end up being true). I fit right in at the shop. Even though they are all caring for hair; they have a tough time with self-care, too — with most caring, as a matter of fact.
I love my barber. She is straight from South Philly, has a marginally happy marriage and a wide array of hair colors and style choices. Her husband, the chef, cooked her meat wrong on Memorial Day – “But she couldn’t tell the chef that.” She paid too much for corn. The manager was in and looking over her shoulder all morning. No one in the shop has said anything about Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court, as far as she’s heard.
I might have known that nobody in the shop would be too interested in what Barack’s doing. I told her that a few Republicans were saying that his nominee was bad. She replied, “Most people around here are Democrats, I think, so they should have no problem wit’ her.”
I’m not sure how I made it through my haircut with my excitement intact. Maybe after the recent triumph of right vs. dopey at the Colissimo 12 put-guns-on-trial action, I feel like there is hope. Maybe I have been waiting so long for the Hispanics I grew up with to be accepted as citizens of the country I can’t help myself. Maybe I am just hopelessly glad that more than one woman at a time might be allowed on the Supreme Court. Maybe I am anticipating that this woman is as mean as they say she is and she will pop the overblown Antonin Scalia. It is hard to say.
I’m excited. But I am not sure “Yes we can” enthusiasm is going to penetrate my barber shop. These folks aren’t even upset about the real estate meltdown and BRT corruption – they are renters. They get excited/come-unglued about very local things – my sister’s affair, my mother’s health, the guy that parked in my husband’s parking spot, how expensive corn is. But they don’t often get upset about whether things are changing or not, because they don’t expect them to change. And if they do change, they expect to be on the wrong side of the change, again.
When I talk about Jesus and the church, I get a little spark of interest, like a very weird person showed up for a cut (“And he never wants a shampoo, for some reason”). The shop is all lapsed Catholics. That is another whole hopeless situation.
I am not sure why I like going to this shop so much! I suppose I can’t help loving them. They are truly like sheep without a shepherd — so much unrealized beauty, so much oppression survived, so much hairspray. They are undoubtedly right that a new Supreme Court justice is pretty irrelevant, as far as they are concerned (or not). I just wish Jesus hadn’t been lumped into the same category. But he and I will keep showing up.
May 28, 2009 at 7:42 am |
hi rod!
I love this post. i can totally imagine everyone in that shop – maybe it can be turned into a musical sometime. somewhere in the middle they get some kind of hope and by the end, they’re taking part in a major world change.
take care.
May 28, 2009 at 10:43 am |
I hear that, but I hear a lot of Latinos are excited, especially cuz she has humbling beginnings from NYC. But I hear ya though, that stuff aint tangible change that will affect life on the block. Thanks for sharing ya story. Continue to be present in ya neighborhood!!!
May 28, 2009 at 8:24 pm |
“They are truly like sheep without a shepherd — so much unrealized beauty, so much oppression survived, so much hairspray.”
Awesome
May 28, 2009 at 10:31 pm |
Such good writing. I love it.
May 29, 2009 at 7:12 am |
This is great! I can just imagine Jesus in the hair salon:
“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a haircut, you would have asked him and he would have given you waves of living locks.”