No Shave November...I'm doing my part. You?

November is a celebration of many things: writing novels, festivities with turkeys, NCTE and NWP conferences, and now National No Shave month.

Truth be told, I've been more proficient at not taking a razor to my face than I have been in prepping for conferences, organizing Thanksgiving, and actually committing to a novel. I do, however, appreciate the addition of a hairy month because, in reference to the musical Hair,

She asks me why,

I'm just a hairy guy.

I'm hairy noon and night...

hair's that a fright.

I'm hairy high and low...

don't ask me why...

don't know.

Yep. That is a mantra for my post-forty life. I was discussing this today with my administrative assistant. "Aging sucks," I burdened her with as I entered the office today. "Hair. It grows and grows and grows and I'm tried of it." Note: I ranted as I did because before I left for work a gigantic nose hair chose to exit my nose and the pesky hairs in my ears chose to sprout overnight. "Women have these issues, too," she admitted. "We just talk about them out loud like you do."

True.

I thought that ranting was what November No Shave month was all about - celebrating our follicles and their inevitably. And that is the reason I write today. Love the hairy beast that makes you human (and thanks to Peej, Class of 2007, for prompting me to think about this).