tell me where your strength lies
you know the story of samson and delilah? right, from the bible. i never read it myself, but from a peter paul and mary song i know the basic idea:
so samson is this incredible-hulk kind of guy, and he gets this idea (I forget why) that his strength is in his hair. when the temptress delilah takes a pair of scissors to it, he finds himself just as weak as the next guy. i always imagine a superman and kryptonite kind of thing.
the moral of the story, ultimately, is that the strength wasn’t in his hair, but for our purposes let’s forget that and move on.
when i was… 19, maybe, i had my girlfriend at the time give me a haircut. i still had quite a mane at that point in my hippie/vegan days, and she cut off a bunch. the cut wasn’t bad, and made me much cooler in the merciless concrete of philadelphia. i was a new man. but a day or two later i was sick as a dog, a 102-degree fever with temperatures outside in the 90s.
at the time i was working with a group of homeless families who would move into vacant government-owned houses; one member i will never forget was a 50-something Puerto Rican woman named Blanca. She was a bit touched, with a mass of white hair and uncanny green eyes, just sane enough to seem enchanted instead of crazy. When she saw me that day with my new haircut and my summer flu, she immediately said, “Samson.” Just that, no explanation, nothing. I took the bait: “um, Samson?” Blanca asked who cut my hair and I told her my girlfriend had. Of course she smiled, and nodded her head, eyes closed. “Yes, yes. Delilah. You are weak.”
Since i arrived in argentina i’ve been growing my hair — except for the time jeremy cut it, i’ve just kind of left it. many argentine guys, besides having their hair long to the point of mullet-ness, seem to cultivate an un-cut look (no offense meant, argentinos). or maybe they just ignore it, or can’t afford to get it cut, whatever. anyway, to fit in i’ve been doing the same. my hair got to be the longest it’s been since the last Samson episode.
until yesterday. i finally decided i’d had enough, and María Victoria offered to cut it. even though she had even less experience than Jeremy at cutting boy’s hair, i decided i more or less trusted her. she did a good job:
back to Samson. even though i don’t believe in much, as far as religion goes, i am superstitious to a fault. so besides the general nervousness that comes every time i get my hair cut (does this person know what they’re doing? are they paying attention or are they thinking about where they’re going out this weekend? i look ridiculous with all these clips in my hair, i hope nobody’s watching… etc.), I can’t get the Samson thing out of my head (so to speak), given that i have now cut most of my hair off. in the middle of the hair salon session, i almost decided it was a bad idea from the start… maybe i should have waited until i was feeling a bit stronger? maybe i should have asked for a trim?
the question now that it’s over, i guess, is this: if it had been Samson’s friend’s girlfriend instead of his own, would Samson have had the same illusion of weakness?
so far, i have escaped the spell. today i feel terrific. wish me luck.
delilah, she was a woman
she was fine and fair (yeah)
she had lovely looks (god knows)
and coal-black hair
delilah she climbed up on samson’s knee
said “tell me where your strength lies
if you please”
she talked so fine
she talked so fair
samson said, “delilah
cut off my hair!
shave my head
clean as your hand
and my strength will be
like a natural man”
she was fine and fair (yeah)
she had lovely looks (god knows)
and coal-black hair
delilah she climbed up on samson’s knee
said “tell me where your strength lies
if you please”
she talked so fine
she talked so fair
samson said, “delilah
cut off my hair!
shave my head
clean as your hand
and my strength will be
like a natural man”
so samson is this incredible-hulk kind of guy, and he gets this idea (I forget why) that his strength is in his hair. when the temptress delilah takes a pair of scissors to it, he finds himself just as weak as the next guy. i always imagine a superman and kryptonite kind of thing.
the moral of the story, ultimately, is that the strength wasn’t in his hair, but for our purposes let’s forget that and move on.
when i was… 19, maybe, i had my girlfriend at the time give me a haircut. i still had quite a mane at that point in my hippie/vegan days, and she cut off a bunch. the cut wasn’t bad, and made me much cooler in the merciless concrete of philadelphia. i was a new man. but a day or two later i was sick as a dog, a 102-degree fever with temperatures outside in the 90s.
at the time i was working with a group of homeless families who would move into vacant government-owned houses; one member i will never forget was a 50-something Puerto Rican woman named Blanca. She was a bit touched, with a mass of white hair and uncanny green eyes, just sane enough to seem enchanted instead of crazy. When she saw me that day with my new haircut and my summer flu, she immediately said, “Samson.” Just that, no explanation, nothing. I took the bait: “um, Samson?” Blanca asked who cut my hair and I told her my girlfriend had. Of course she smiled, and nodded her head, eyes closed. “Yes, yes. Delilah. You are weak.”
Since i arrived in argentina i’ve been growing my hair — except for the time jeremy cut it, i’ve just kind of left it. many argentine guys, besides having their hair long to the point of mullet-ness, seem to cultivate an un-cut look (no offense meant, argentinos). or maybe they just ignore it, or can’t afford to get it cut, whatever. anyway, to fit in i’ve been doing the same. my hair got to be the longest it’s been since the last Samson episode.
until yesterday. i finally decided i’d had enough, and María Victoria offered to cut it. even though she had even less experience than Jeremy at cutting boy’s hair, i decided i more or less trusted her. she did a good job:
back to Samson. even though i don’t believe in much, as far as religion goes, i am superstitious to a fault. so besides the general nervousness that comes every time i get my hair cut (does this person know what they’re doing? are they paying attention or are they thinking about where they’re going out this weekend? i look ridiculous with all these clips in my hair, i hope nobody’s watching… etc.), I can’t get the Samson thing out of my head (so to speak), given that i have now cut most of my hair off. in the middle of the hair salon session, i almost decided it was a bad idea from the start… maybe i should have waited until i was feeling a bit stronger? maybe i should have asked for a trim?
the question now that it’s over, i guess, is this: if it had been Samson’s friend’s girlfriend instead of his own, would Samson have had the same illusion of weakness?
so far, i have escaped the spell. today i feel terrific. wish me luck.
previously there was Home sweet home
afterwards you have Hourglass
So if testosterone also correlates to strength, the loss of my hair is indicative of an increase in my strength.
I'm cool with that.
It's kind of like being in elementary school when my complexion began to go south. Zits, sure, but a small price to pay for physical ascendancy!
JP, I had no idea you were headed to Cambridge. [submitted on 06 Jul 03]
i remember your haircut that summer. this one looks better. [submitted on 23 Jul 03]