I suppose I could get a gig as Santa Claus. But then I would have to act jolly. And I'm not a jolly kind of guy. Though I've put on a few pounds over the years I don't shake when I laugh like a bowl full of jelly. I do have the full, white beard and white hair. I've had my share of Santa Claus comments.
The beard isn't about being Santa Claus for me. I mean, I didn't set out to grow a full white beard. I had a trimmed goatee for years. It was maybe in the last two or three years that I just let it grow. Part of it is to cover the double chin that shakes a bit when I laugh like a bowl full of jelly. The other part was that throughout my life I really leaned toward having facial hair. When I was in my 20s it was pretty pitiful. I confess that I did try filling in my moustache with eyeliner for awhile until the snickers from "friends" got to embarrassing.
So now that the beard is full, I have grown fond of it. I don't just have to be Santa Claus, I can be Don Quixote or John Brown the abolitionist. I can be Sigmund Freud or Robert E. Lee (though being a Confederate isn't cool these days). I can be one of ZZ Top, too.
As George Carlin once said , "See my beard, ain't it weird. Don't be scared, it's just a beard."
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