A HAIRY SITUATION

“...if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”  (from Judges 16:17)

That line is from Samson, where he finally “caves in” and tells Delilah that if is hair is cut he will lose his super-strength and become like any other man.  No, Samson was not “able to leap tall buildings at a single bound”, but he is the physically strongest man in the Bible, and (physically speaking) the closest thing to Superman I can think of.  Sadly, he was immature and morally loose.  

I really do not intend to say much about Samson in this piece, but I thought that was a great lead-in for a story of something I did this weekend.  Last week, my wife Mary Ann was mentioning that a guy we know was getting his hair cut, and it so happened that a female hairdresser was cutting his hair.

“I don’t think I’d be comfortable with that.”  I said.

She thought that was pretty ridiculous on my part.  I admitted that it probably was, but as I told her, “All my life, men have cut my hair.  It would just seem weird.”

On Saturday, I got up early and went up the street to Colotta’s Hair Stylists (for those of you in Framingham, MA, it’s a great barber shop) to get my hair cut.  The big sign in the window said it all:  “Closed for the holiday week.  We open again Tuesday, July 11”.  I was bummed.  My family always tells me I get my hair cut too often and I usually really don’t need a haircut.  But, what can I say?  I like my hair trimmed and neat.

I decided to drive over to Canton to the shop where I got haircuts for years in my past:  Frank & Vinnie’s (and, for those of you in Canton, MA, it’s a great barber shop).  There are several barbers working simultaneously at Frank & Vinnie’s just as there are at Colotta’s.  I always liked to have Frank, the founder and owner, cut my hair.  He’s a first-class barber...an Italian immigrant who has run the shop since 1953.  At Frank & Vinnie’s, I was saddened to learn that during the past year, Frank has suffered a brain tumor and a stroke and is thus no longer cutting hair.  What used to be Frank’s chair is “manned” (well, I’d have to say “womened”) by a female barber.  When the woman’s customer departed.  NO guys who were waiting wanted to get into her chair.  I’m not kidding.  I felt so bad for her that I did!

Boy,I know God has a sense of humor...what was that I’d just said a few days earlier about not having a woman cut my hair?!  She was the type who was very talkative and asked me a million questions.  If you’re familiar with “The Nanny” (Fran Drescher) she talked exactly like her- with that New York Jewish accent.  It turned out she WAS Jewish.  When she found out I was a minister, she had a number of theological questions.  In that Jewish accent she asked,

“My mother died- where do you think she is now?”

There she was, wielding a straight razor- I’m strapped in the chair- and she asks a question like that!  It was a hairy situation!

I did what Billy Graham does when he’s on a national television interview show and is asked a delicate theological question:  I gave a quick, pleasant, generic answer and changed the subject!

Yup, God has a sense of humor.  I’ve found in the many years I’ve served God there’s been never a dull moment!  And, I got a first class haircut on Saturday to boot!