Not growing a beard

The weather inside is frightful - in the bathroom, anyway. Well, it was when I decided not to shave, grandchildren.

Not shaving is not the same as growing a beard. I have wanted to stop shaving for years. I never want to grow a beard.

I remember well that day I first took razor in hand, looked close-up at my face in the mirror, smeared some suds, and scraped the razor blade across my fuzzy beard. The thousands of boring, compulsory shaves since then have completely erased the rapture of that voluntary moment long ago.

I think that twice I attempted a beard. I had so little facial hair that one would think I was growing grass in the desert. Ugly!! Also, I had a three-colored beard which made my face look like a colorful zebra. As I remember, dark brown at the ears, lighter brown across the cheeks, red across the mustache, and brown again on the chin. So, you can see that growing a beard is not on my list!!

And shaving is clearly not on my list. Growing a beard is hard work and purposeful. Not shaving is what I do when I have too much to do. Can you see the difference?

But here is where, at the two week point, the story twists and turns. G'ma Judith likes my non-beard. And, it is mostly gray now instead of the brown zebra look. So, I did not shave yesterday either but this time it was because of a promise to G'ma Judith that I would give it another week. I was complaining as I always do after two weeks that the hair was starting to irritate my skin. For her, I will put up with the irritation - if it continues. I just might get to three weeks and have the irritation go away? Then I can "not shave" and have a "non-beard" for the rest of my life.

Love, G'pa Bob