[ExI] barber

[William Flynn Wallace]

Beyond stunned. I was getting a haircut and asked the barber how most
people parted their hair on the left versus the right.  I thought it was on
the left, as I have noticed that, or so I thought, being a man who parted
his on the right (which might have something to do with my dad being
left-handed and me being nearly equal on both sides).

Anyhow, he looked puzzled and finally said on the right.  I looked it up
when I got home and sure enough, 90% of right handers part on the left, and
so do 45% of lefthanders.

My question is:  how can someone look at heads all day long for about 40
years and not notice where most people part their hair?  When asked, get it
wrong.

So it made me wonder, since the barber was of average intelligence, what I
had been missing despite looking at it all my life.  I have come up with a
few over the years:  in the Revolutionary War there was a group called the
Green Mountain Boys.  I wondered where that came from until I finally got
it when I looked at the word Vermont for the thousandth time, and saw it.
Then my mind went to :  Giuseppe Verdi - Joe Green.

We look and we look again and for many years we just don't see.  I wonder
how many abstractions are that way.  We know the definition but simply do
not understand the concept the way we think we do.  When we do, it's a
little epiphany.

bill w
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