the body of Christ, given for you, and yes, my hair is different

One of the things I find difficult about parish ministry is the level of attention. I completely understand why people sometimes just want to come to church and sit in the back and leave before coffee hour - yes, sometimes that is a cry for help and should be attended to, but you know what? Sometimes you just don't want a lot of attention.

If you are a pastor and you get a fairly dramatic haircut, you get a lot of attention. The problem is, you can't do anything about that. Except never cut your hair or change its style in any way, which is a solution too dramatic for me. I like a little change once in awhile. I just don't need four hundred and twenty-four people commenting on said change.

My very, very (naturally) curly hair has been an object of much discussion while I have been at Still Quite New Congregation. Seriously. Nine months in, and I still get some comment almost every Sunday: "is that natural? You're so lucky! It's so curly!" And my personal favorite, from a junior high kid: "my grandma says you have the curliest hair of anyone she's ever met." Thanks, kid.

So, as you are gathering, I got my hair cut about two weeks ago. On a Saturday. And the next day, it was as if there was nothing else to talk about in the world. "It's so short! It's really cute! Boy, that's really different!" (My least favorite: the usher who said, "hi, Butch." What the hell does that mean? Should I be offended? Not sure. Let it go.)

I did notice two distinct trajectories. One: the women noticed and commented frequently. (I realize this next bit is a little gender-biased; not trying to enter sexual politics here, just noting my experience.) Even if all they did was comment about how short it was, they commented.

And two: the men mostly noticed, but didn't comment. Not out loud, anyway. Mostly they looked at me like, "something is different, but I'm not sure if I should say anything about it." This happened a lot during communion distribution. So much so that I briefly considered (not really) saying as each puzzled-looking guy received the bread, "this is the body of Christ, given for you, and yes, my hair is different."

I bet St. Paul never had to deal with any of this crap. I mean sure, he had the whole "thorn in the flesh" thing, but I'm guessing that was not a coded reference to the fact that people were overreacting to his snazzy new 'do.