One of the things I had to resolve when we bought our house in Lake Como was where to go for a haircut. I have really thick hair. If I do not cut it once every four weeks, it begins to lay in a thicker and thicker pile on top of my head. "Chia Fathead" might well be a look that someone can pull off. Sadly, I am not that someone.
Luckily for me, I found Pat and his barber shop in Belmar. He is an excellent barber. I get a great haircut at an extremely reasonable price. In our current COVID-19 era, it is an incredibly safe experience. Only the customer getting the haircut is permitted inside the shop and only if the customer is wearing a mask and is not running a fever of any degree (your temperature is taken prior to entry). Pat and his wing woman Mary Lou each wear a mask the entire time your hair is being cut and the barber chairs are sanitized after every customer.
In a non-COVID-19 era, it is a lively little joint in which to spend some time - as I do once a month - early on a Friday or Saturday morning. His shop is beautiful, adorned with too many great black-and-white photos to count, and there is always great music playing on the sound system. I get a kick out of simply listening to the conversations between Pat, the customer in his chair, and the other soon-to-be customers waiting our respective turns. I hope that some day soon that again becomes part of my day-to-day.
Saturday morning, I was at Pat's by 7:00 am in an attempt to ensure that I would be among his first customers when he opened at 7:30. My work paid off. I was the day's second customer. As Pat cut my hair, the conversation turned to politics. We talked about why he supports Donald Trump. We talked about why - although I have been a registered Republican since I first registered to vote thirty-five years ago - I do not support Mr. Trump. We talked, as well, as a couple of middle-aged men about how disheartening each of us finds the current state of affairs to be in this country in terms of how people with differing points of view on any issue, politics included, have demonized one another. No longer are people simply adversaries. They have become enemies. Disagreements have become blood feuds.
Ten minutes or so after I sat down, the haircut and the conversation wrapped. As I paid Pat, he thanked me for the conversation. I, in turn, thanked him. I told him I would see him in a month or so and we could commiserate over the state of the world again. He laughed and told me he was looking forward to it.
Sitting in my car, post-haircut, it occurred to me that among the many problems we have in these United States, is a prepositional problem. Once upon a time we talked "to" and "with" each other. Now? Far too often we talk "at", "over", and "past" each other. Ours is not an inability to understand another's position. It is an unwillingness to listen to it at all.
It is an unwillingness to see anyone's point of view but our own...
which might very well be the most dangerous type of blindness.
-AK
I've read where the difficulty starts is that we now listen not to understand but to rebut. I think there was more that that actually said but then I interrupted....
ReplyDeleteI think you are 100% correct.
ReplyDelete