Saturday … Buffs, Beanies and John Cage

This week has been good (note to myself ‘remember this’) I have learned about ‘Buffs and ‘Beanies’ and that I have run out of ways to use a ‘comb over’ or rather the comb over has all but gone.

No worries; my hairdresser is coming on Thursday, as there will be no hair to cut, we will be able to talk about anything even my next holiday.  As it happens, it will be to Brazil in 10 weeks time! Deal with that hairdresser!

(To be fair my hairdresser doesn’t ask me too much about my holidays; he is a friend and alway supportive through my difficulties and hair loss)

Seriously though;  losing my hair is not a new phenomenon and my snow white locks (spiky crop) were my joy. I will miss them as much it seems as a parent, pet or anything one holds dear.

Nonetheless, the angst has faded a little and as I said ‘found ways to make me feel a bit more comfortable’ not a lot but enough for a while. The buffs and beanies have been fun and flattering. If not a little hot and itchy; I wonder who would chose to wear them.  

Also, this week I have been helped by visits to some experts; (not in alopecia, no one knows about it and its causes) who will help me come to terms with the grief at the moment and in the next few weeks.  So that I don’t concern myself too much with the hair and its return (or not) I need not go down the road of self pity, I am not to blame; my body is is functioning well.  My hair has decided to stop growing … end of!

I remain intact; the truth. Yesterday gone and tomorrow just tommorrow, just a breath.

But looking back again, as I can; on last week it was good; work was productive and jolly; in a library this is not always an easy combination.  I had some good ideas for my blog, and future postings, which is pleasing, as for a while I was seriously considering giving up, certainly a daily post seemed out of the question.  

The beanies and buffs apology for repeat, but they were instrumental in this; not them but the angels who recommended them!

Then, I found a book; nothing new in that but I think it will something to dip into (nothing new in that either) and eventually read through out (that is the deciding factor; good or not so) It is the style I like, and would love to write (note to myself begin today!) in a similar vein. It is called Every day is a good day : the visual art of John Cage.  

John Cage (1912-1992) was not only a composer, artist and author, but a thinker who applied his ideas to sound, visual art and writing.  He came to visual art in his 60’s ,as I did but there the comparisons end.  He was a radical composer and pioneer of the 20th century avant -garde

Dipping into the ‘Companion of Cage’ was so uplifting like no other book I have read/looked at  of late in a bid to ‘help myself’ get better, be an artist , be a better person etc.  So I will give this book some time and leave you with these quotes

… ‘Art is a way of life.  It is for all the world like taking a bus, picking flowers, making love, sweeping the floor, getting bitten by a monkey, [losing ones hair] reading a book, etc ad infinitum … Art when it is art as Satie lived it and made it is not separate from life (nor is dishwashing when it is done in this spirit)’

‘Formerly, one was accustomed to thinking of art as something better organised than life that could be used as an escape from life.  The changes that have taken place in this century, however, are such that art is not an escape from life, but rather a an introduction to it’