My Friend & My Barber

My young beautiful friend who is a nurse anesthetist at QMC is enjoying a Diamond Head hike. Even if I joined her, it would only expose the limited mobility of my 60++ frame and make me feel older than I am.  But everything in the world is relative and the wise clock dial only turns in one direction - which makes it clockwise (unlike my HECO electric meter - thanks to the new PV system recently installed at my home).  All things considered, I'm not doing too badly.  But what the f..... does this have to do with my barber?

Well this is really about him.  Actually, he does share a few common threads with my hiking friend; they are both Korean. And they both look younger than they are. And they are both slim and both healthy and they both speak Korean.  I think that's where the similarities end.

My barber of the last 20 years just turned 80 this month. He is at work 6 day's a week...used to be 7 days until just recently.   He cuts about 15-20 scalps a day and he charges $11.00 for each. I make sure he gets $15 from me; not sure how much of a tip he gets from his other customers.  Actually, my son also goes to my barber when he is in town, on the occasional and rare impulse to properly groom himself.  In any case, my barber is not a rich man.

But my barber is a RICH man. I really don't know how many medications he takes but at 80, he looks at least as young as me...or as old as me, depending upon your perspective.  His eye sight is perfect, his hand are and arms are solid and fluid, there is no shaking or jerking movements, and my hair (little as there is to work with) is not ripped from my head like some quick-to-the finish barbers shooting you through the queue like meat forced through a meat grinder.  He is very pleasant all of the time; he is on his feet for hours on end without one complaint.  He is dependable and always there early and leaving late. 

I work in a world of professionals and I play in a world of secure adult dancers.  There are many good people in the world but regrettably just as many bad people. Most of the people I know are infinitely more wealthy than my barber, but few are as healthy, as happy, as functional and mobile. Most people I know are still reaching for something unattainable in their lives; few have the patience to sit back and appreciate what they have or who they are. For $15, my barber left me this morning with a predictably cropped scalp  that will last me a few weeks as well as buoyant with the positive aura of his existence.