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<\/a>Whenever\u00a0<\/span>I take our younger son to the barber shop, I\u2019m reminded of time\u2019s passage and the prayer of Moses in Psalm 90: \u201cTeach us to count our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 Something about this barber shop, which I have been taking our sons to for a decade now, makes me reflect on the unfolding of time. I took Lucky for a haircut last weekend. What a privilege it is to watch our children grow up.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
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<\/a>I first started going to this barber shop, then called Santo\u2019s Barber Shop after a long-deceased owner, in our small town\u2019s central shopping district when our older son was three. Now 13, he shuns the place, connecting it with the crewcuts of his early years. \u00a0Instead, \u00a0he has me take him to a stylist in a unisex salon who can work with his kinky hair.<\/p>\n
But Lucky, who is ten and a half, doesn\u2019t mind\u00a0the $12 haircuts. The first time I took Lucky to the barber shop,\u00a0he was three, and his bright blond ringlets reached to his shoulders. The barber propped a wooden board between the arms of the metal chair so our son could sit at a good working height, where the barber could easily reach him. The vinyl cape covered his\u00a0body. I stood behind the barber, anxious for my son to keep still so as not to be cut by the razors or scissors. He sat as still as a statue as his blond ringlets fell to the tiled floor. These days, I don\u2019t hover behind the barber. I read a magazine, eavesdrop on conversations, or knit.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Our visits to what is now called \u201cEverybody\u2019s Barber Shop\u201d are infrequent;\u00a0Lucky gets a\u00a0couple of\u00a0crew cuts a year. He lets his hair grow out until it covers his ears (as in his\u00a0picture\u00a0here). Last weekend, for the first time, he told me he wanted just a trim, and not a\u00a0crewcut.\u00a0So that is what he got.\u00a0He reached another milestone in this visit.\u00a0For years,\u00a0Angela, a longtime employee and now the\u00a0owner, handed him a lollipop as he left. \u201cYou\u2019re too old for lollipops now,\u201d she told him last Saturday in her rich Hungarian accent.\u00a0Lucky nodded, as if he had understood all along that this moment would materialize.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nMy favorite former newspaper boss, Chuck Paolino (who happens to be a Catholic deacon), has blogged about<\/a> the beauty of barber shops. \u201cPlaces like that barber shop have always interested me because of the role they play in a community that transcends the immediate purpose of their existence,\u201d he writes. <\/p>\n Time passes. Little boys outgrow\u00a0crewcuts and lollipops and grow into young men. God\u2019s hand is everywhere in this unfolding.<\/a>\u00a0When St. Paul was imprisoned in Rome, he wrote a letter to the church in Ephesus, where he had ministered for years: \u201cWatch carefully then how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord. <\/a>\u201c<\/p>\n May these\u00a0words serve as a guide on how to count our days.<\/p>\n Whenever\u00a0I take our younger son to the barber shop, I\u2019m reminded of time\u2019s passage and the prayer of Moses in Psalm 90: \u201cTeach us to count our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart.\u201d\u00a0 Something about this barber shop, which I have been taking our sons to for a decade now, makes me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n