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'Where a River Comes and Goes'
Georgetown Island, Maine
I stood before the mirror, hair thinning, and in my early 40s. I began to cut the hair with scissors. I had not been bald since a small boy. Soon, looking at what was happening, I stopped. I was almost in tears. Cutting the hair off was a big step, more so than I had thought.
I began cutting again. Finally, I was able to use a razor blade. I shaved the head bare.
That evening, I went to the church I served as pastor. I got out of my truck and began walking toward a member. She kindly asked, "May we help you?" I told her who I was. Once she recognized me, we began laughing.
* * *
I shaved my head for more than thinning hair. I could have kept the hair several more years, likely. I had decided I never wanted to be the half-way on hair - that is, have it growing out on the sides and a bald streak down the middle. I did not wish to whirl it around on the head to cover the bald, as some men do, either. I did not want to explore any other options. My dad had worn a toupee for many years, being uncomfortable with his baldness. I did not want to do that. I had decided to accept the fate in my genes peacefully.
Cutting the hair and shaving the head was inspired mostly by something other than thinning hair. I had become an avid reader of the bald Ken Wilber. On the front cover of his book, A Short History of Everything, was Ken bald. I admired how he seemed to wear his bald with pride. I had been on a devoted path of contemplation for years, having been so vowed almost a decade prior and was avidly studying Buddhism, also. Hence, I decided to signify this path by shaving the head - which is not uncommon among religious in Buddhism and Christianity. The bald head had special significance, at least to me.
Fifteen years later, I still cut my hair off. My bald head is no longer special to me - it is just a bald head.
* * *
Some readers may think, "Why is he talking about a bald head?" Well, a bald head is everything, and everything is included in the Way. You might say, "I have a head full of hair. I have never been bald." Your bald head may not be a bald head, but it is something. That is very important to see, even if you have a head covered with hair.
* * *
When a bald head is no longer is an exceptional bald head, it can be exceptional. A bald head does not have to be special to be special. It is special for not being special. - What I write pertains to a principle of the Way.
I share a Scripture to connote this principle. Psalm 19.1, in the Christian and Jewish Scriptures: "The heavens speak forth God's glory (shekinah), and the sky proclaims God's workmanship." Yet, one sees this glory, and another does not see it. When we look up, it may appear ordinary. After all, it is all composed of matter, and we have seen it thousands of times. Possibly, the first time we looked into the sky was a wow moment. Now, it is not. Yet, that it is not is an opportunity to become intimate with that you have seen and no longer are amazed by. So, spiritual wisdom is to become intimate with the sky as just the same sky you have seen many, many times, and let the sky show you what it is, what is there. Then, you may see the Effulgence, the something that makes matter sacramental, glorious. Then, you fathom what the Psalmist wrote about the sky being filled with glory. That is very special - to see the ordinary sky is to see the glory. However, you cannot tell anyone what this is you see - it is too remarkable to say.
* * *
Hence, for the very special to become, see the bald head - the sky - for what it is - just a bald head - the sky -, then you can see it as it is. Then, something more than special-or-not-special can arise, and you see how extraordinary it is. First, though, you become intimate with the ordinariness, which takes a lot of time for most of us.
* * *
So, you take up a practice like meditation. It is new. You have this idea of how wonderful meditation is. It is like meeting a new lover. Now, you identify as a meditator. It is your new high trip. Meditation must lose that glamor. The whole path you are on must become, like meditation, seen as plain. Then, meditation is seen for what it is, extraordinary. Yet, this extraordinary is the same ordinary. You see the ordinary for what it is. Your heart sees and rejoices. You relate from the heart with everything in your life, then a bald head or a head full of hair is equally exceptional, even as a sunny sky or overcast sky are alike spectacular.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2021
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse. The book is a collection of poems based on mystical traditions, especially Christian and Sufi, with extensive notes on the teachings and imagery in the poetry.
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