Last night I decided, after staring at myself in the bathroom mirror for a while, that I really needed a new identity from the image I have used for the past six years or so. I have moved on, and so has my appearance. I am not, for good or ill, the person I was six years ago. And I don’t expect to be that person ever again. So, faced with that reality, I needed to take a new selfie image.
Have you ever imagined or experienced how difficult it is to self-produce an image which best satisfies and captures your own self-imagined essence – illustrating the person you think you are and encapsulating that in a single fleeting camera shot? While at the same time trying not to look into the camera lens but to hold the thing steady, even through the real press of a virtual button? It is bloody difficult and, judging by the plethora of second-rate selfies scattered across the webosphere, not many people actually put much thought into the process. And if you undertake such a project after midnight, when all you want to do is go to bed, how satisfied with the results are you going to be?
So, who is this?
If this is the face of God – then I am God.
If this is the face of the Devil – then I am the Devil.
If this is the face of Santa Claus – then I am Santa Claus.
If this is the face of Robinson Crusoe – then I am Robinson Crusoe.
If this is the face of Mr Bean – then I am Mr Bean.
But if this is the face of a confused and tired old man who is trying to live a simple life in a world that has been made so over-complex by himself and people like him, that it is about to implode under the burden of its own timed-out maximum complexity, revealing the inherent fragility of its underpinning structure, in the only way that can ensure the rebalance of the simplicity of life and the safety of all nature – then I am that confused and tired old man.
I think the chosen image does capture something of the essence of all of that. And so I am somewhat satisfied with the result. It will eventually feature in avatars wherever I make my written presence known.
Not Something Else 
Your Charles Darwin look? One query…..why does hair grow so well on the face and yet is so often lost on the head? In the same individual. Must be some evolutionary advantage.
Merry un-Christmas from one old dodder who hates Christmas, to another who feels likewise. I’ll say one thing for being unvaxxed…. you have a good excuse for saying to invitations… “sorry I can’t come. I’m not….er……you know.” And then watching their face as they say….Oh, really……what a shame.” (no it’s not, thinks I)
Thanks Bev. I think it has been scientifically proven to be more related to the amount of involuntary face-palming indulged in throughout life: https://youtu.be/ahrBOvz1jzA
In my case I just decided to stop shaving one day. And since beard-trimming is even more involved and effort draining than shaving, that became out of the question too.
A merry un-Christmas to you also. I would like to say that I prefer to celebrate the solstitial and equinoctial points in preference to the religious equivalents, but I usually forget and my natural tendency to want to treat every day the same, also offers no assistance with that.