Sunday, July 31, 2016

Got the look











 

I have never been one to concern myself greatly with my appearance. In the long strand of my life I have adopted a few different personal styles. Some have been dramatic, like my Italian skatepunk phase or my millionaire hobo chic phase. I like a little drama. But as to my appearance, like many things in my life, I have not been energetic or industrious, and I have been mostly happy to let things settle to a fallback quasi style that I'll call "pleasantly tousled". As long as I could keep my standard up to that minimal look of "pleasantly tousled" I could turn my mind and spirit to other pursuits.

But as to our appearance I believe we all have a secret, platonic ideal for ourselves. I believe somewhere inside of us we hold at any given time a vision of the ideal look we are aiming for. Some of us may work much harder than others at reaching our ideal, but deep down that ideal is in our consciousness. And because we live in such an image conscious culture, it is very easy to find an actual human model for our ideal, almost invariably someone famous. It is common to hold in our heads not just a barely expressible ideal vision of ourselves, but also some, mostly unacknowledged even to ourselves, famous person who encapsulates that ideal.

For instance, it only occurs to me now that until I was in my early forties, for me, that person was Charlie Chaplin. Like many things I write here this comes as a surprise to me. Until this moment I had no idea that Chaplin, through all those years, was my style ideal, even if It makes perfect sense to me now. 

However, I was aware that as I inched towards middle age I found a new aspirational style. And unlike with Charlie Chaplin, I was more or less aware that I was going, long term, for the look expressed best by one famous person.

So it is with some satisfaction that I report to you that this morning at my library I was out in the front lobby, and a long time regular of the library, an only mildly crazy man, said to me in his distinctive accent "Ah! You look like Professor Einstein."

It is a great pleasure to stumble into accomplishment.










10 comments:

  1. Not a bad person to end up! I usually get, "My God, you look soooo much like Golda Mier!" I am still processing that one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh you! No one even knows what Golda Meir looks like anymore. You look a bit like Matt Damon. If you squint alot, I mean, the person looking at you squints, you should just look steely and bournish and a little wry. I mean, if you want to look like Matt Damon. It's up to you.

      Delete
  2. I am having trouble with the comment publishing thing. I have either (a) commented once or (b) twice, w/ a deleted comment or (c) thrice. Please tell me what you see on the other end.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I see this. Does that help? Otherwise I have no idea and am a victim of free google products just like you.

      I also saw some deleted comments, which I was able to wipe away because they were only sort of gone.

      I know. Really.

      Delete
  3. Hey there G., I doubt you remember me being drunk and banging on the piano the night before Calypso's wedding. I just wanted to let you know that i too am often perplexed by this blog's ability to process commentary. Just know that you are not alone, honey.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey there G., I doubt you remember me being drunk and banging on the piano the night before Calypso's wedding. I just wanted to let you know that i too am often perplexed by this blog's ability to process commentary. Just know that you are not alone, honey.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. GA can respond to the other one if he wants. But I must leap in to say we were all pretty drunk that night. Tequila, nightswimming, and blues clubs. It was almost exactly 25 years ago!

      I loved those days just before my wedding in Chicago.

      Delete
  5. Has it really been 25 years?! That's just wonderful!!
    Since it looks like I've somehow survived alcoholism and am likely to be dry for the rest of this trip I've been apologizing for the thoughtless and stupd things I've ever done that i can possibly blame on booze. So... please let me know! ^_^

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You were lovely on that trip and it was among the happiest few days I can remember. You lost a painting or something when we were waiting in line to see a Brady Bunch theater thing, but not because you were drunk. You were essential in the assembling of my wedding trousseau and it was an absolute joy to be with you in those few days.

      So you can cross that one off your list.

      Delete
  6. Thanks for including me in the party. I'm raking in all sorts of fond, and clear!, memories. ^_^

    ReplyDelete

If you were wondering, yes, you should comment. Not only does it remind me that I must write in intelligible English because someone is actually reading what I write, but it is also a pleasure for me since I am interested in anything you have to say.

I respond to pretty much every comment. It's like a free personalized blog post!

One last detail: If you are commenting on a post more than two weeks old I have to go in and approve it. It's sort of a spam protection device. Also, rarely, a comment will go to spam on its own. Give either of those a day or two and your comment will show up on the blog.