Surprises
Yesterday afternoon I went to visit my Father in the care center. Seeing as how I haven’t updated people for a while on his condition, I guess I should. He’s very skinny, but is alert. He’s confused most of the time you talk with him. He talks about events totally out of sequence and mixes things up regularly. He gets confused easily, often times thinking he’s at home or has only been at the care center for a few days. But he’s mostly happy and that’s the most important thing.
So, yesterday I went to visit him and as I approached him he looked, well, different. Like, a little bit better. Maybe a little younger. It took me a while to put my finger on it and then, “Oh my God!”
“What?” my father replied.
See, my father’s profession was Psychiatry. He was a Psychiatrist in every way. A great one. He even looked quite a bit like Freud with the Freudian gotee. He fit the part.
So, the other day, someone shaved off the beard portion of his gotee and left only his mustache. In 33 years of living I’ve never, ever seen my Father’s chin. I actually had to stare at him for a good five or ten minutes just to get my bearings! It was really quite a shock. Not in a bad way, though, just shocking. He’s an 83 year old man and probably looked 5 or 7 years younger without it. He resembled a better looking 40-year-old Dennis Franz, but keep in mind that Dad is 83.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I tend to change my facial hair frequently. Sometimes I’ll have your standard gotee, other times I may just have the soul patch. Sometimes the burns will be long, other times I crop them short. Right now I have some funky ass design growing on my face, but I bet in three or four weeks I’ll be bare faced. And seeing my father with just a mustache convinced me that I will continue to change my appearance for the rest of my life. I don’t want people to ever get too comfortable with just one appearance.
