Hirsutism

My Clinical Herbalist and Natural Health Practitioner, daughter, Brenda Shaw, has informed me that I am afflicted with what is referred to as “Hirsutism.”

“Hirtu.....” what?” I said. “It sounds like something I should be claiming some kind of compensation for or at the very least take a holiday from and at the same time eradicate that travel bug from my system.”

“Hirsutism”, she repeated. “Hairy women, that’s what it means Mom.”

“Oh,” is all that escaped me. I went quiet for a moment, not too sure how to process this new information. It’s one thing for me to say I’m hairy but to have someone else write it out in black and white in the body of an email and to put a name to it somehow makes it that much more real. The crystal clear picture of the big hairy gorilla on the 42 inch wide screen plasma TV I saw at Costco the day before, flashed before my eyes.

I started thinking about how I’ve always been mesmerized by creatures from the monkey, ape, or gorilla family and about how it is said that the people who come into our lives are often a reflection of who we are. I wondered if that’s why I’ve always been fascinated by these hairy creatures. Maybe they are a reflection of who I am in more ways than one.

I went back and read the email I had sent Brenda. It said: What the h..... is a person supposed to do about an abundance of hair??? I need to get my face waxed every month and I can shave my legs at night and by morning I have stubble already. I swear I can watch the hair on my arms getting thicker and longer every minute of every day.

I had sent it off in a moment of panic and reading it over again made me realize there was no more denying it. I might as well accept it and quit fretting about it. There are worse things I thought. So far it’s earned me the title of “a big fuzzy teddy bear” by a certain special individual. I can handle that. Sounds way better and brings a much milder image to mind than “hirsutism.” That word makes me think like I’ll come crawling out of a cave waving a stick in my hand and making some deep grunting, guttural sounds that sends people running in the opposite direction.

So my daughter, otherwise a very caring and compassionate soul, emails me back and after discussing a few things goes on to say, “Oh ya, and by the way, thanks a lot Mom; the other morning James found and yanked a long hair from my chin.”

I quickly emailed her back talking about other things we needed to talk about as well and at the bottom of my email I added. Oh, I forgot to say - sorry to hear about the chin hair and your predisposition to this faith due to your inherited genes but look at it this way - how else would you have gotten that wonderful personality and caring loving soul?

A person has to keep things into perspective. Don’t you think?

Dear Lord. Give me the wisdom to change the things I can and to accept the things I can’t. Including being a big fuzzy teddy bear!