Some things are slow to change, some things are fast. It might take your lifetime to become a courageous person, but it'll take your lunchtime to get a haircut. If nothing else the haircut will make your day better, and if you die before your personal development goals have been realised (for example you're taking such pleasure out of your new silhouette reflected in shop windows and the second looks you're getting from passers by that you step out into the street without noticing the...) then all your life has been is a sequence of days strung together, so these small things are very very important.
We're applying a high standard to the simple pleasure of a haircut if we're agonising about whether it's frivolous or distracting from higher callings, and I'm not sure if we question our motives in the same way about a fresh coat of paint on the walls, or a nice bottle of wine, or singing along with a dumb song on the car radio. If style and fashion have to answer to higher standards, I'd argue it in terms of: celebrating the moment, presenting yourself nicely to other people because they deserve it, presenting yourself nicely because you deserve it, being able to control your environment to make yourself happy in small ways; and if you live all of those things, then the bigger things may well take care of themselves.
|