I routinely trim my son’s hair – especially in the front – as it tends to grow very quickly and prone to get into his eyes. This last time I wanted to clean up the tufts around the ears and miss-snipped and found myself staring at a bald circle. Sure – I could’ve left it alone but – in reality ; I couldn’t not- attempt to fix it. So I marched forth- making the whole – a lot- shorter.
Then I was forced to stop – because with a toddler one only gets so much stillness and patience. It was patchy and feral looking in the back with a semi-orderly mop on top and long bangs in the front.
I was surprised how bummed I was by how his hair looked – sure it’ll grow back (very quickly) and he doesn’t know – or care but still – I felt something akin to sadness and loss.
I decided I’d go in for a second round – and a haircut started to take shape – atleast on his left side until again- I was forced to stop. My husband came home that evening and commented on how he sees a different boy each night – with George sporting a radically new cut each day. He then said; “you know- that’s a Hitler haircut “. And as I ate and looked at it – I said “yea – now that you mention it – it is Nazi like – and my husband said “no- not Nazi-like; it’s a straight up Hitler haircut. The froppy, moppy hair on top with the drastic shave all around it “. I had to agree- it was drastic; for sure.
So – on the third day – I reached a point where I couldn’t reasonably keep going; check mate. He ended up with a military buzz cut slash Angelina Jolie a la girl interrupted with extremist undercurrents-all in one. But – I reasoned that atleast it’s mostly even all around – so that it’ll grow out nicely – safely out of his eyes and won’t stay wet long after bath-on these cold winter nights.
I started thinking about how this probably sais something about my personality type and this scenario could easily qualify as an exam to determine which one you may be.
The obsessive- a need to do a task until it’s finished successfully or atleast cannot -physically, go any further. There are others who could’ve easily just let it go – and then there are those who wouldn’t bother with a haircut at all since – after all, he is just 2.
Then again – you may ask yourself – who cares? We may reason that anything we do-in the long term – will amount to being a triviality. If you expand outward, far enough- it all seems like a flash – just a brief moment in time that we are here so, why bother with any of it; especially- concern for the quality of a toddlers haircut.
Well – our lives are comprised of innumerable little tasks and moments and imagine if we did our best with each- so that – it proved to be a success ; even just an inward success as opposed to a half- hearted attempt that feels more like failure. In the end – it’ll amount to a life of rich successes as opposed to the latter.
And – In the final tally – it must certainly amount to something.
