Thomas announced earlier this week that he was the only student in his class to do math homework over holiday break and therefore was the only student to be promoted up to the next level in math. He was feeling very pleased with himself. Of course I took the moment to point out that, were he to work as hard as he did during break for the next several weeks, he could get promoted up to yet the next level before long. Strangely, that idea didn't appeal at all to him.At school a while ago older boys were teasing each other about the presence or absence of body/facial hair and Thomas (obviously perplexed by this older boy business) asked me in the car on the way home from school to explain the point of the conversation. In a nutshell I explained that boys are often excited/anxious about growing beards/shaving/getting pubescent and the conversation is a way to ease anxiety. That explanation seemed to satisfy Thomas who views his classmates just as the 19th century European anthropologists viewed newly discovered Pacific Islanders. I asked him then how he felt about getting facial hair. "Are you excited about shaving?" He was quiet a moment and then said, "I don't want a beard. But I AM quite interested in mustaches." I immediately thought of him with a George Harrison-styled mustache (ala Let It Be era). Not bad, actually.
2 comments:
Oh YES!!! And with the luxuriant locks - to die for.
xM
When I got to that stage I was both anxious not to grow a beard and anxious that nobody should know I was anxious, so I borrowed my father's razor and tried to get the fur off. Using soap would have amounted to an admission of guilt so I didn't, and it hurt. My father, completely missing the point (they do, you know) told me that soap would make it more comfortable.
Later on your grandma talked me into growing a moustache. I think it was because her father (who was dead by that time) had had one. It made me look like Stalin and it's hell if you're sweating since you can't wipe it off your top lip.
Grandpa
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