I feel sorry for men who wear toupees.

At what point in their progression toward baldness did they make the shift toward a hairpiece? Do they try to keep it a secret from the people they date — or even their life partners? How do they deal with rain, sports...haircuts?

It seems exhausting — not just the maintenance, but the fear that someone will find out. It seems like a happier prospect to just wake up in the morning and go through the day being bald. There’s nothing wrong with it.

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It’s up there with those other ugly childhood taunts, like “I know you are, but what am I?” and “Kindergarten baby, stick your head in gravy…"

It’s said with a sneer, emphasis on you. “What do you know?”

The implication being that whatever you could possibly share (right now, whenever, forever) has no value. “Just shut up. No one cares.”

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A few weeks ago, a poignant request went out on Facebook.

“I have a job interview for a choral music position. What are some things I can do with a choir if we aren’t allowed to sing?”

And with that — not being allowed to sing — we’ve completed the build-your-own-dystopian-society checklist, thanks to the coronavirus. Education in the arts is already fragile in our society; this development may crush it completely.

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Due to, ya know, efforts to rein in a global pandemic, an unprecedented number of people are going to be staying home for an unprecedented amount of time.

Many of them are used to filling life with work and structured activities. What now?

Regardless of a person’s age, they are going to wander around listlessly if they’re not used to having all that free time. That’s why they’ll need to invest in a hobby.

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Okay, technically it hasn’t been daily blogging. I do give myself (and you) the weekends off.

But on February 28, 2019, I wrote my first article and clicked “publish.” And I’ve done it every weekday since then. And I have learned a lot over the past year.

There are two things that stand out the most. Unsurprisingly, they mirror the themes I like to talk about in my articles.

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