If This Beard Could Talk

Many a people stare at an old abandoned building. Maybe it was a hotel, a restaurant or maybe a mansion. Either way a common question boils to the surface, if those walls could talk, what would they say. Would they speak of lavish parties full of champagne, cigars and dancing? Or maybe a family Christmas full of joy and cheer. Or maybe yet a depressed, gloomy time of a failed relationship or a loss of a loved one. The stories that could be told far outnumber the stars in the sky and sometimes we need to step back and look at all those stars, all those stories. If we were those walls, what would we say?

If my beard could talk, an unusual statement not heard by many but one that prompts thought. If my beard could talk, what would it say? It would speak of many an experience, both good and bad. It would speak of friends and family, trying new things and shying away, the should'ves, the could'ves and the would'ves. Regrets of actions and inaction. My beard would speak of the feeling of fingers combing through it, knowing who I have allowed to get close to me, knowing how it felt and how I felt about it. Remembering with dread the time those fingers of a friend teased it into a braid for the first and only time. How it has become my identity, "do you know Tim?" "Who?" "The guy with the beard" "Oh yea him." If this beard could talk it would speak of all the times it tried in vain to encourage me to either do something or not. Oh how it must feel time after time of continuing failure with girls, nervousness to do the simplest tasks, and pure lack of courage. But it must stand idly by as I continue down the same path time after time.

There is a reason why walls and beards don’t talk. Well besides the fact that they are inanimate objects. They can't talk because something we have to experience things on our own. Failure is the key to success. There may come a time when we realize who we are and what we have become, a time when we realize we need to change. The building will get torn down but be replaced with a new building with walls fresh and eager for new experiences. In the military my beard will come off and my life will begin anew. Learning from my past will help me become the man of my future. Sometimes we all just need to tear down the walls or shave our beards and start anew.