On Haircuts

I got a haircut the other day. It had been a really long time since my last one, and I desparately needed to get a trim. I usually wait about 2 months or longer before I get a haircut. I'm cheap, and if my hair looks unkempt it's OK because I'm saving money.

Whenever I get a haircut, there's always this small part of me that wants to do something different. Like the other day, I really toyed around with the idea of cutting my hair really short again, of just completely doing the buzz cut. I mentioned this notion to a few of my friends. Most of the guys responded with "Heck yeah, man. Go for it!" while the girls typically responded with "No! You're hair looks better longer!"

So, being the gentleman that I am, I listened to the girls, and just got a trim instead of doing the buzz. OK, it wasn't just that I was listening to the girls. It was based a lot more on the fact that I just don't branch out very much.

When it comes to everyday life, there are a lot of times where a small part of me also wants to do something different. It tells me I need to branch out from the ordinary, to stop comforming to cultural norms anymore, to stop caring about what people think about me, and to be more like the "aliens and strangers in this world" that Peter talked about.

But so many times, I just can't make myself do it. I'm worried about what will happen when I break my routine.

There's a song by Leeland, one of my favorite bands, called "Opposite Way" which really fits my thinking. Check out the entire song, but the first verse goes like this:

Living in the same town for all these years
Doing the same old things
Hanging with the same crowd and it’s starting to get crippling
You’ve never felt in place and you tell yourself it’s all okay
But something’s different today
You want to run the opposite way

Anybody else feel like that sometimes? I think God calls us to. We are not supposed to comform to this world (Romans 12:1-2). Instead, we are to be different.

My friend Nate has a mohawk, for which he almost got fired from his job. Maybe I'll go for that next time.....