The day after my 20th birthday, 2 things happened. I cut off the long hair I had been growing since I moved out of my parents' house, and OJ Simpson was acquitted of murdering his wife and her lover.
The night OJ ran in the white Bronco, I was at an MIT frat party with my homie Nate. Someone had a little TV on the roofdeck and everyone was watching it live. "Run, OJ, run!" was definitely the most celebrated and oft-used party phrase of the night. Nate and I were joking about it all the way back over the Mass ave bridge. It was obvious then, as it is now, that OJ would not have run if he were innocent.
The day after my 33rd birthday, 13 years to the day after the acquittal, I find myself once again, for the first time since I was 20, with a full shaggy head of hair. I am itching to cut it off, but I know my days of being able to grow it are running short. If OJ hadn't been acquitted, I may not have cut my hair off. I'm not saying one caused the other, but do I really have to explain the Butterfly Effect to you? If OJ hadn't been acquitted, he definitely would not have been free in September of 2007, when he and some legbreakers burst into some guy's hotel room, guns drawn, demanding that the guy return some of OJ's shit that he had stolen. Borrowed time.
Every breath that OJ has drawn in the last 13 years as a free man was a breath on borrowed time. Yesterday, OJ Simpson was found guilty of armed robbery and kidnapping. He could spend the rest of his life in prison. The judge refused to let him free on bail, and he was taken immediately into custody.
What I need to figure out is whether I should keep my hair or shave my head again. I could reason it out 50 different ways. Is the simple fact of an OJ verdict a sign that I should chop it off, or does the opposite verdict mean I should keep it? Dr. Evil or The Dude? Tell me, what do you think?
1 comment:
I miss your bald head!
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