First photo is from 1973-1974 University of Portland student body card.
The USAF ROTC was unimpressed with my hair, even with my near record score on their academic AFOQT scholarship and entrance exam (I walked away from it all later in freshman year, though I spent six total years at the University).
When my hair hit the floor of the barber shop, I felt like I lost an important part of myself.
.
The loss of my truest self happened many years before this photograph was taken.
The finding of my truest self happened many years later.
Yes, multiple books describe the miraculous sequence of events that few peers have any curiosity about. Well, I get it, there are so many great choices for entertainment and distraction displayed on our mobile phones and tv sets.
Ah, my truest self has a lot in common with my false sense of self, eh? The main difference is the new found ability to be articulate around trauma, other seeming ineffable issues, our innate capacity for spiritual healing, and, to not have to face life constantly intoxicated.
Much of my present life is the life of a writer. Hmmm, maybe my truest self is now the life of the invisible man?!
Just think of the trouble that I could create now!
No need to hide, no need for clothes?
What will I not wear today?
What do you have to wear to fit in, to be accepted, and/or to please those quaint concepts of God that our parents or church gave to us?
Those Garden Of Eden fig leaves turn into body armor for far too many of us.
The main things that we hide from are our past traumas, shame and the lies we tell to defend our mistaken understandings of our self and each other.
Civilization, and dysfunctional families, can be such a drag on the spirit!
Find me where the wild things are!
I will be dressed the way God intended for me to be.
“I shall gather up all of the lost souls, the ones that are alone, the ones that are broken, all the ones that never really fitted in. I shall gather them all up, and, together, we shall find our new home.”—Athey Thompson
