At the annual reunion with my high school friends, one pointed out how gray my beard was. “Look! At the bottom! Those are all gray. The top is more black. I wonder what color it’d be if you grew it out.”
I, too, have wondered many times. My beard always looked black, so as an ash blond guy, I figured I would turn into one funny-looking viking. Apparently now, my alter, grown-beard ego would look even funnier. Would the top be black and the bottom be gray? Specks of one color amidst the other? Or would it be a smooth gradient, making it look as if my beard was speed-aging in real time?
Chances are, I’ll never know, and neither will my friends—because I’m not a beard guy. I’ve never gone more than ten days without shaving, and it’s unlikely I ever will. Therefore, all my friends and I got out of our interaction was my joke that “someone must be Gandalf, after all,” and that was that.
For every one “what if” that you’ll discover about yourself, there’s at least one more that you won’t. Not everything needs knowing, and as with life itself, it’s impossible to unearth every detail even just while looking into the mirror. That, too, is part of the grand design.
Sometimes, personal questions are worth digging into. Sometimes, the best you can do is make a joke and shrug them off. Know yourself well enough to keep moving in the right direction, but don’t stop at every intersection posing an inquiry. There’s no point in analyzing the color of every hair in your beard—especially if you intend to never grow it out.