The Role of The Hat

How Something Both Literal & Figurative Can Have Lasting Impact

Howdy, Folks!

It’s your favorite ebon-feathered friend here and I wanted to tell you a story. See, I’ve had this old hat for a good long while now. It never fit me properly, hence the retainer cord but it’s been a favorite and even earned some sneers and some kids saying “Trump 2020!” in a restaurant where I stopped in for a quick bite on my way. I’ve always worn it during the spring and summer months because, frankly, it keeps the sun off my head, face, neck and did a great job despite the disparity in size.

I wore the thing to a wedding this past Wednesday and yeah even the shirt is a bit big on me.

All, in all, I didn’t even catch that I might have themed this until a friend pointed out the match with the Captain America Bolo Tie.

Look, I can’t really tie a tie without it taking half an hour to a full hour just to get the thing right, Bolo Ties are not only fantabulous but they’re a time-saver. Follow for more formal dress tips, but I digress.

Anyway, the hat, at it’s pinch point (where you pick it up to put it on and take it off) the straw has been breaking for quite some time. It’s been hooked by trees, the wind has taken it and used the retainer cord to throttle me across the throat a time or two. My point being, this hat and I have been through it in the past few years. I think I got it around the time I joined the Tribe. I know it wasn’t met with favorable sentiments when I sent a picture to a different group with me wearing it. The citation that it presents nationalists sentiments. If that’s your takeaway, that’s your takeaway. I neither apologize, explain nor do I control how you react or respond. Just is what it is.

My poor hat is old. It was time for an upgrade. When I saw

J. Ash Odinsson

modelling this one, my first question was “Where?!” and he cited a chain that’s just about as ubiquitous as the internet.

I found a location close to me and headed there today. There were only two, neither of them dark in color but I decided I liked them both enough to grab them.

First, this one. I dunno why I liked it, I just did. Now if the old one is making some think of “nationalist sentiments” well, I advise you to strap on a new set of Depends because you’re about to need them. That’s as much warning as I’m going to give out here.

That’s gonna load up some diapers, I imagine but nevermind that. We’re also trying to get one on our Jarl’s head next.

In any case, that means the old hat needs to be retired and will be as of the time of this writing. I might just keep it around to do drawings with or something like that. Retiring it from it’s official duty and giving it sort of an afterlife, a reincarnation, if you will, might just do some good for it before it’s entire top breaks off and there’s nothing left of it.

While, on the surface, this may just seem like a funny anecdote about my search for a new hat, in reality, while I was out and about wearing it today, I did have a bit of a realization. We all wear hats in life. We have to change those hats quickly and often, these days, more quickly and more often than I’m sure many of us would like.

The Havamal, Stanza 71 provides clarity on this one:

“Without a hand, a man can herd. With a limp, a man can ride a horse. Without his hearing, a man can fight. Even blind, a man can find his way. The living will always be more blessed than the dead.”

Each one of us is a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a co-worker, a colleague, friend, countryman, countrywoman…look at your job, look at your daily life. How often do you change your roles depending on the situation. Whether or not you wear a piece of garb on your head, you have to make adjustments in life. You know what fits, what doesn’t. Sometimes you have to bumble around. It’s a term I like to call “hugging walls” and this happens whenever you’re playing a racing game you’ve never played before. You’ll overcorrect, slam your car or hovercraft into a wall, grind and then overcorrect again, this time you’re grinding the hell out of that other wall but then the moment comes where, after much practice, your car can go high-speeds staying right there on the track without a problem, leaving you to overtake others, gain positions until finally, you have a real Six of Wands moment where you sit among those in the Winner’s Circle. We do this with jobs everyday. We do it in life, everyday. We lose something, we adapt. We gain something, we adapt.

White hats symbolize the good folk while the black hats symbolize the bad and grey hats are considered neutral. They don’t have a dog in the race but they also are careful to keep from overcorrection.

Funny how a piece of physical head garb that can be used to protect us from the damaging effects of the sun or shield us from the cold bite of winter (especially if you’re as challenged in terms of follicles as I am) have also become symbolic for our stations in life, at work and at play, no matter who we are, where we are or what it is we’re doing at any given point in time.

Some of us, depending on geographical location and occupation, may even have a ratty baseball cap that’s beaten halfway to death but it still remains our favorite and we’re reluctant to part with it.

For a second, imagine the person who may have lost a leg or an arm due to an unfortunate circumstance. Those who adapt to their new set of circumstances, I’m almost certain, would give everything they own to have their leg or arm again but they still manage and they still do everything they can to live as normally as they can, given their situation. Others will wallow in self-pity around it, desiring that all bend their lives around them but that is not what we’re instructed to do. The rumination on the circumstances can often lead us into depression and negative ideation. We’re encouraged, instead to only note that we may be imperfect and we may not have all that others have but with a shift in perspective and a little adaptation, as Kevin B. Burk would have put it so eloquently, it’s less a story about “How Jimmy Lost His Hand” but “How Jimmy Decided To Upgrade Himself And Work Circles Around Everyone Else.”

To close I recall a man with cerebal palsy on TV once giving a motivational speech. His speech pattern was that of RJ Mitte from Breaking Bad and he was talking about some of the accomplishments he’d made in life. There were people to confirm his story and he ended with, “I have cerebal palsy…what’s your excuse?”

A good question and, in my opinion, a damned good thought to carry with me every day.

*Tips hat, leaves server*