Stevie Wonder's Points
The other day I saw an image of Stevie Wonder from, I would guess, about 1970. In this particular shot, he was looking like he needed to shave and clean up his face.Oh, he had facial hair. A mustache, I recall, and sideburns. There may have been something on his chin, as well. But the problem is that in between all the intentional facial hair, he needed to trim up a bit.
Now, this wasn't an intentional "let it grow scruffy because it achieves the look I desire" lack of shaving event. It was all blotchy and patchy and needing some proper "landscaping." And that got me thinking...
For most men, if we opt to be lazy and let our whiskers become unflattering, it is we who are being lazy, so we deserve what we get. But in the case of Stevie Wonder, doesn't it seem like he is paying the price for someone else being lazy? Or not doing their job? I mean, he wasn't able to see what he looked like. And I doubt he did his own shaving.
Now, I think twice about that last line. I mean, I suppose it is possible that he did, in fact, do his own shaving (and that might even explain the patchy spots). I remember reading once about all this stuff that Helen Keller did on her own and it was pretty amazing. So, I never intend to give visually impaired people less credit than they deserve regarding what they can accomplish despite their inability to see. However, I have to assume Stevie was getting some help here, 'cause his sideburns tapered to a nice "point" at the ends. I can speak from plenty of experience. Grooming those thinly pointed chops is not something to be done blindly. In fact, even with perfect vision and proper lighting, it's tough to keep them perfectly groomed. You're talking small fractions of an inch with the razor, and it's easy to screw up the point or loose symmetry between the left and right.
So...I think someone wasn't doing his or her job that day. And 36 years later, I'm still noticing it.
posted by Steve @ 5:47 PM
3 Comments:
Stevie Wonder is one of those people I have a hard time liking, not because of his music, but because of the kind of person he was. And I freely admit that I am a bit biased, so feel free to contradict.
When he was young, he went to the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind (FSDB) and admitidly did not have a great time. His family was too poor to bring him home for vacations and such, so he was stuck in the school full time during the school year. But once he became famous, instead of trying to help those kids in the same situation he had hated as a kid, he choose to ignore them, never donate, and actually say mean things about them. I mean, yeah, you didn't have a great childhood, but it wasn't the school's fault -- they were doing the best they could, and were one of the few places kids with special needs could get the education they deserved. But instead of trying to make a difference when he became famous, he choose to go the other way, possibly condeming more kids to a situation he himself knew was bad, when he could have changed that.
I just can't understand that mentality. Especially since I went to college a few blocks away from the school, and saw the kids who went there, even knew people who taught there for their internships. He could have helped a lot of kids, made a huge difference, and it wouldn't even have taken money. Just some time, a little compassion, and the ability to think about more than just himself.
Unbeknownst to many, Toni's first full-time job was Stevie Wonder's hair stylist.
Suddenly, it all seems to come together now.
In the words of a great man: "thubbbbbbt" (:-p)
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