Politics and Haircuts - Brady

I found a really great hairdresser in Fort Wayne. I love how she cuts my hair, and she's much cheaper than the equally awesome hairdresser I went to in Chicago. I had an experience with her the other day, though, that made me frustrated both with her and with myself.

She's only cut my hair twice before, but we had always just talked about fun stuff like family and travel. I loved hearing about her adventures. Recently, for example, she went cave exploring in Mexico and then snorkeling IN the caves. The last time I went to her, though, our comfortable conversation took a turn toward awkward.

She had stepped away for a minute to help another client, so I took the free time to listen to my voicemail. She came back and asked who had left a message (in a nice, not nosy way). I told her Kevin, my husband, had and that it was just about an interesting story he'd heard on the radio. She asked what it was, and I recounted what he had told me - that in Norway drunk driving tickets are scaled based on your income and so a man worth $30 million had gotten a ticket for $100,000.

She looked at me in the mirror, nodded knowingly, and said "You know why that is? Socialism."

Now, I am very liberal socially but don't pretend to understand economics enough to call myself a fiscal liberal. What I DO understand, for sure, is that I don't usually like talking politics in social situations, especially with people I barely know. So, I answered something like, "Yeah....it's pretty different there than it is here."

She responded, "At least for now. I just think we're moving really quickly toward socialism. I really do."

Arrrrrrrggggghhhhh. I was frustrated on several levels.

First of all, I just don't think you can have a casual conversation about these issues. Neither of us had data in front of us and we're probably getting our news from entirely different sources (which is another huge issue in and of itself). I just don't think comments like the ones she made, in a casual, social situation in which we had limited time, are very useful.

Secondly, I just didn't want to be having a political conversation! I love getting my haircut and look forward to just zoning out, having someone play with my hair for a little while, and leaving smelling like those expensive beauty shop products. I feel like the salon is the quintessential place where you should avoid politics.

Finally, I was mad at myself because I immediately thought: "I can't wait to move to Chicago where people are more liberal." In other words, "I can't wait to move somewhere where everybody thinks like me and I never have to deal with anyone I disagree with."

I don't want to be that person! I want to be able to listen to others' viewpoints and learn something from them. And I do actually think I've changed a little bit from living in Fort Wayne. For example, at first I was really judgmental about how religious people in my school district are. I even kept a folder in my email account where I'd file away any message with a religious reference in it, annoyed that teachers in a public school were talking about things like prayer and how God made sunsets beautiful. After two years, though, I can see some upsides to this philosophy. The kids are well-behaved; they stay out of trouble because their big social gatherings are with their youth groups. They are also very service-minded and are always trying to help people less fortunate than them.

Anyway, the point is that the beauty shop encounter was stressful. Relocating to Chicago will make day-to-day situations like that easier, but I don't like that I'm part of this trend of moving to places where people think like you do, talking only to people who hold your views, and getting news from such different sources we have no common ground.