Beard of the Week
This past Friday night — Good Friday to Christians — was a busy night for Isaac at the church where he's music director (St. Matthew's United Methodist Church in Bowie, MD) and organist. This Friday evening service is the one during the year that he creates, organizes, and operates. Bringing to bear his years of experience as a former Catholic priest and Benedictine monk, it's his chance to present something a bit more liturgical than the usual talk-show format.
As a result, I'm frequently involved in one way or another. Some years I sing with the early-music octet and we do, say, a passion — a few years ago it was a passion setting (one of two) by Tomas Luis da Vittoria (1540-1613). I've been very fond of passion settings ever since I played 'cello for Bach's St. John Passion in college. And some years I play 'cello for something in the Good Friday service. One year we did the marvelous "Seven Last Words" by J. Haydn — listen sometime to the profound version that extracts just the string-quartet music.
This year I played 'cello in a small ensemble with two violins and organ continuo for Vivaldi's "Stabat Mater". This also is a profound work and musically very moving; to those for whom Good Friday has an emotional, religious aspect, I suspect it is also profoundly moving for different reasons. The service was lovely, our performance was quite nice (although I wasn't my best for two of the movements when my G string slipped — if you'll pardon the expression — and I tried to get it retuned during the rests).
Anyway, afterwards a few of us went out for dinner at our favorite local Chinese Restaurant. During conversation, some of the women made an offhand reference to the fact that they dye their hair. (This is, at best, a poorly kept secret — we are all of a certain age.) That led JJ, the other guy at the table who was not Isaac, to mention the he dyed his beard. The women all wondered why? "Well," said JJ, "if I didn't, it would look like Jeff's!" The reader may decide for himself or herself whether this was an entirely complimentary remark.
Now, it is true that my beard is haphazardly multicolored in shades of dark brown, light brown, and white, as in this week's beard (at left, which is not my beard, however). One might think of it as calico or, like the mineral, Picasso marble. To some, no doubt to JJ, it looks blotchy, which many do not esteem aesthetically.
I do, however, esteem blotchy, mottled, Picasso-marble colorings highly. Certainly beards that are uniform in color, dense, and beautifully shaped have an appeal, rather like the formal control of the patterns in a French garden. But, a multi-colored beard can exhibit an abundance of personality, rather like the best English cottage gardens. While I admire French gardens, I prefer to spend time in English cottage gardens.
I've known some guys who despair over the white patches in their otherwise "perfect" dark beards. Please! Every artist knows how an accent of complementary color is often necessary to bring a monochrome presentation to life. Is it not the snow cap on Mount Kilimanjaro that makes it an instantly recognizable artistic wonder?
I had an obsessive crush on a guy in high school whose dark-brown hair had a blond patch in it, right above his forehead. I must have eroticized that color variation: since then I've always been susceptible to getting a bit of a charge out of a color patch in someone's hair, white patches in eyebrows, or the white patches in a beard on either side of the chin. It doesn't reach the heights of a fetish by a long shot, but it does enhance my appreciation of the unique and infinitely varied colorations of the "mottled beard", and I don't mind that one bit.
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on Monday, 17 April 2006 at 22.17
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Really nice beard! It's multicolored and really very interesting, and striking.
on Monday, 17 April 2006 at 23.48
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Uh, isn't that kind of a strange gig for an atheist?
Beardwise, I have seen not one, but two gentlemen of a certain age whose beards were divided almost perfectly in half by color, with one side being light gray or white, the other side very dark gray to black.
One of these gave a couple of talks to college classes I attended. For some reason, I found the asymmetry of his beard very distracting. So much so, I got little out of what he said the first time he showed up and not much more during his second visit.
The other man was one I saw in town occasionally.
Their beards are their business, certainly. But if I were to have a beard that went so markedly and lopsidedly two tone, I would dye it to restore symmetry. I think that not just for what I consider a better appearance, but also so that my beard's assymetry wouldn't be distracting.
on Tuesday, 18 April 2006 at 18.13
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Bill: It's a relief to know that there are at least two of us who like multi-colored beards!
SW: Yes, it's an odd gig for an atheist, but I do it for the music, really. There's an awful lot of music from times that I like, and music that I like to play, that was meant for church use and it's silly to deny that. Of course, this gives me the chance to infiltrate and spread my demonic message of disbelief.
And thanks for the beard anecdote, too. I've never seen a side-by-side two-toned job, so I don't know what my reaction might be, although it might well be favorable.
on Tuesday, 18 April 2006 at 18.49
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I was on the verge of replying, "bless you," until I got to the above sentence. Guess I'll hold on for another occasion (grin).
on Wednesday, 19 April 2006 at 11.51
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No fear: the minister is convinced that he is winning the conversion battle since he has proximity on his side. However, he is a Protestant and his theology is weak, thus giving me the advantage. Tsk.