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Important footnote – many beards were harmed in the making of this post.

My main effort and the generations of stubble that followed have all fallen by the wayside and been callously discarded, mostly down the sink of some cheap hostel. That´s just the way it goes.

Since the post, “Leaving Argentina, back on the road and back in Brazil”,  my trusty 3 blade razor (sorry Wilkinson, 4 is just overkill) has remained firmly in the wash bag and an unruly barb has spread across my usually fairly hairless face (I have more than enough on the top of my head).

Whilst this growth developed, I put the old adage that you should never trust a man with a beard to the test. The expression may actually concern moustaches rather than beards, I can’t remember. It’s not particularly important though and the way I see it, beards have moustaches hidden within them – so if anything, they are an even more sneaky version.

It turns out that it is all true!

Since the razor went into exile, I estimate that I am 15% less reliable, spout forth 20% more clichés and tell tall tales 10% more frequently.
Even this is most likely untrue, based on furtive imagination, rather than fact.
This further proves the point, I think..
As I am mostly travelling alone, this has little consequence but is something to be mindful of nonetheless.

I look forward to treating myself to a cut throat shave in an Ecuadorian barber shop, although I am slightly apprehensive about a two tone face!
This reminds me of something my friend and old flatmate said to me about a similar facial predicament – he warned of his worry to shave in case his face had grown old whilst under the protective cover of heavy facial fuzz!

Continuing with this pointless ramble, I had a lot of time to think whilst surfing in Busca Vida. I suspect that many minutes of this time were gained by not shaving…
Many important matters crossed my mind – as did some less important but equally perplexing ones. For example:

What would the unusual “Pure of Popes’ finger in cheese” accompanied by the rather dry sounding “Flour of the house”, as read on one restaurant’s menu, have tasted like?

Why do dogs always put their head out the window of a moving car, mouth agape and tongue billowing? Do they do this when it is windy too?

Yawning is contagious. This is well known.
But is it true across species?
Could a yawning dog influence me to yawn, or vice versa?
It’s worth investigating.

The large amount of free time also further compounded my thoughts that it is very rare to be truly alone in the world for any amount of time, and when you are, rather than being a sad, desolate experience, it can be liberating and simply enjoyed for the rarity it is.
This got me wondering how many different people I have spoken to since February.
I didn’t attempt to work it out but it is clearly a huge number, covering all sorts of people from all over the world. Everybody is different – the further apart the place of birth, the more pronounced this is. But equally true is that everybody is surprisingly similar – everybody laughs, everybody cries, everybody lives and everybody dies. Everybody is everybody and all are human.

Taking a stroll further down this widening avenue of clichés, I came up with one of my own, which may well have been said before which sums up how I feel at the moment in my life.

These are great times: Being old enough to know what I’m doing but young enough to be able to do it.

Cheesy but true..

 I also spent some time paying thought to some interesting (to me) philosophical problems. This stemmed from thinking about all the different people I have dealt with in the last year – some of whom were good, some of whom could only be described as bad.

It might take a while, if ever, to get to the point..

What is the difference between these people, other than an external judgement?

And is it really that black and white?

For example, consider two people – one is considered to be a “good person” who lapses and does “bad things”. The other is a “bad person” who does “good things”..

Do our actions define us?

Or does motive, morality and ethical thought behind the actions and words matter? (even if these are never revealed)

This reminded me of an antagonistic (on my part) conversation in the park,  years ago, with an active Christian group who were on a recruitment drive – I was walking home, hungry and restless and they were giving out free hot dogs..

I posed a question:

“Which is better or more important? Someone with a particular faith (in this case, a branch of Christianity) who sins (and then maybe asks for forgiveness). Or a faithless person who only does good and tries to spread happiness in this world?”

This question went answered. Actually, that´s not true, but the answer I received bore no relation to the question I asked – a politician in training perhaps?

Back to the point and the original question of whether our actions define us (a belief held by Katie Holmes´character in Batman Begins, for film fans out there)..

Certainly they play a huge part, especially in the presentation of our exterior self to the outside world..

So.. Would that then lead to the logical conclusion that the motive behind the action is purely self satisfying?

I´m not sure if I believe this particularly – but if it were true, would it necessarily be a bad thing?

No, probably not, as long as the thought police don´t ever come into force!

As I said, I had a lot of time on my hands..

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This entry was posted on September 18, 2007 at 5:18 am and is filed under Dodgy English, Monday morning, Nothing in particular. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.