Bald Solidarity is Beautiful

Hey there, it’s Lisa from Clusterfook filling in for my super secret, fantasy boyfriend…Karl. He’s starting his vacation to California in search of the Summer of Love. I’m not sure how to break this to him but the Summer of Love happened while he and I were infants…way back in 1967. Maybe it’s all that secondhand tryptophan he’s been sniffing.

For me this summer has been all about love and letting the people around me know how much I care about them. That’s something I’ve always had difficulty with in the past. Although I’d love to poke fun at Karl like others have in their guest posts I just can’t do it. The snarky, bitchy, mean Lisa has left the building.

(If you see her, please send her home. I miss her very much.)

I had the opportunity to meet Karl at TequilaCon in May this year when it was held at my home town of Philadelphia. We drank and talked. We talked and drank some more. Karl was so easy to talk to and from reading his blog I already knew we had some personal things in common.

Not only did I enjoy spending so much time with Karl but my husband took one of the best pictures of the night! I’ve shown this picture on my blog before but here it is for those of you who haven’t seen it before. Are we fierce or what?

In June I started chemotherapy for the first time in my life. Since the doctor told me I was going to lose my hair I decided to take control of the situation and shave it. Well, I had my sister shave it all off. Although it was very empowering to take that kind of control there was a part of me that felt really sad about having no hair.

I ended up spending that weekend in bed because chemo knocks you out that way and when I finally got out of bed I found a video of Karl an his mother…who was shaving his hair off in solidarity! It made me cry because I was so touched that someone would do something such as that for me.

Karl’s act of solidarity made me feel and understand that I’m not alone in my battle against cancer. Whenever I feel tired or I’m in a lot of pain and think I’m not going to make it one of the things I think about is Karl and the video he made of shaving all of his hair off. It makes me think that if someone several states away sacrificed their hair for me then the least I can do is kick cancer’s ass for another day.

I hope Karl never underestimates the depth of his solidarity. I’m especially proud of him for picking a date to quit smoking. What a great gift he’s giving himself and his daughters. The sooner he quits the sooner he can add some more years to his life!

So, me being me, I took Summer of Love literally because Karl is such a great guy and I love him! He just better send me a damn postcard!