...I hardly knew ye. After getting some hard jabs from the family about how unprofessional beards were, I made the tough decision to let it go for a while--at least until I got another job.
It was great while it lasted, and the more it grew, the more I liked it! Sure, it was only a month, but it felt great.
So, in retrospection, I took a gander on what Wikipedia had to say about the History of the Beard, and it was pretty interesting! Here's some things to think about:
- The Spartans punished cowards by shaving off a portion of their beards.
- The Lombards derived their fame from the great length of their beards (Longobards - Long Beards - Langbarten). When Otho the Great said anything serious, he swore by his beard, which covered his breast.
- When a priest became convinced of the doctrines of the Protestant Reformation he would often signal this by allowing his beard to grow, showing that he rejected the tradition of the church and perhaps also its stance on clerical celibacy. The longer the beard, the more striking the statement.
- Veterans of the French Emperor's Army were known as "Vieux Moustaches" (Old Moustaches), while greener conscripts were forbidden to grow them, thus making them especially coveted and prestigious.
- "For God wished women to be smooth and to rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously, as a horse in his mane. But He adorned man like the lions, with a beard, and endowed him as an attribute of manhood, with a hairy chest--a sign of strength and rule." St. Clement of Alexandria, 2.275
- "A kiss without a moustache, is like soup without salt." - Breton saying.
Well, I know this is an old post, but I must throw in my support of facial hair. My husband (being careful here to avoid those real names and associated ninjas) has a beard because I happen to agree with the Breton quote above. As far as we know, it's never stopped him from getting a job. :-)
ReplyDelete