There's a scene in City Slickers where Billy Crystal's character bemoans middle age as having hair where you don't want it and not having hair where you do. I can relate as I view myself in the mirror these days. The bottom of my crowning glory is changing. What had been a perpetual autumn on my chin is stalked by winter. The copper and chestnut (and occasional stray blond and brunette strand) is changing one by one to a pigment-less white. While my temples have a spot of gray or white--I can't tell which--that doesn't bother me. But after having adjusted (sort of) to the trauma of losing my hair ( I did experience my teens in the metal years after all) my beard/goatee was all that was left to me in terms of Samsonesque glory. Now, even that is fading. Oh, Cruel Age, with every swipe of your sickle you turn a red hair white. You even violate the hair on my chest. Four white intruders have appeared. Is there no way to avoid your swinging, inevitable blade? Are an early death or "Just For Men" my only options?
I haven't made a list like this in a while, and I believe I discussed most of these on the blog as I finished them, but I thought I'd make a handy short-hand list for you and me. These are only in the order I read them and do not indicate any preference. The Open Door * Frederica Mathewes-Green The Children of Hurin * J.R.R. Tolkien The Omnivore's Dilemma * Michael Pollan Agrarianism and the Good Society: Land, Culture, Conflict, and Hope * Eric T. Freyfogle Wonderful Fool * Shusaku Endo Up the Rouge: Paddling Detroit's Hidden River * Joel Thurtell and Patricia Beck Johnny Cash and the Great American Contradiction: Christianity and the Battle for the Soul of a Nation * Rodney Clapp (I started the following in December, but I haven't finished them--so far they are excellent: Love and Hate in Jamestown * David A. Price and The Picture of Dorian Gray * Oscar Wilde) Try one of these--let me know.
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