The Haircut

​A kindly old gentleman was a figure on his block.

He had been there since the beginning of the block’s development when there were only a few houses.

In 60 years, he had seen a sleepy, wooded, neighborhood, become the outskirts of a bustling metropolis.

Now, he was long since retired and served as a sort of mentor for all the residents.

He would watch over the kids at the basketball court to make sure they did not get in trouble.

He helped parents with raising their children.

He encouraged young men and women in establishing their careers.

There was one unique characteristic to this man though,

...he wore his hair in a long braid that extended all the way down to his thighs.

One neighborhood kid asked the old man why he had such long hair; he explained to the child like this:

“I stood in the mirror one morning like I did every single morning, doing the same thing, shaving my face.”

“Sometimes when I needed a haircut, I would do that too…

...all of this I would do in the mirror, but do you know what?

Of all the times I ‘looked’ at myself in the mirror, I never actually felt that I saw myself, until this one day; and on this day I realized that why am I trying to cut the hair off my face if it is going to keep growing back?”