Beware the Old Bald Man

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This is an old saying in our house. The one about the old man I mean. It has its origins a good three years ago and it has come in useful many many times. My mom @ladyrebecca coined it. Now, a bit of background on how this saying came about. When I was around 17, I started attending these dirt cheap acting classes, mainly to meet other people and get out of the house a bit. And they were headed by this old bald guy. Ugly and gross, seriously he was a caricature like you wouldn't believe. He was the archetype of the lecherous old man, so much so that it was gross to witness. He basically hit on every woman he encountered, which was, you know, eww but surprisingly, some fell into his trap. Astonishing, yet it happened.
And the phrase itself started as a warning to the young, rather naive girl I was then.

And just in case you're thinking I'm being harsh or this is a misjudgment - it's not. That's how it was. This dude was an old, fat bald has-been (well, never-was would be a better term, I believe) who thought he was some Don Juan. Seriously, I'm going ew just writing this.

Anyway, he didn't have any actual artistic talent, but what do you expect for a next-to-free class? And he'd put on these horrible little skit shows with cheap pub humor. Anyway, my brief association with this individual ended long ago, thank fuck, and I moved on to actual acting classes. You know, the kind where you pay, but you actually learn something. And that's good, I'd blissfully put him out of my mind, except we're still friends on Facebook and this morning, while I'd gone on FB to search news on Assange, I got a notification this creep had invited me to one of their shows and I checked it out and I was shocked to see the "cast" were the same as years ago. There are people out there who've associated with this individual for 4 years now and that, to me, is astonishing. Not to mention unsettling.

Because the way I see it, any experience is useful to an extent, even bad ones (especially bad ones), as long as you manage to move on and learn something from it. Even though looking back, I mourn the wasted hours with that acting "troupe", I'm glad I did it because if I hadn't, I wouldn't be able to spot the old bald man. No, I don't mean actually old bald men, not necessarily, the phrase refers to a type of character. Because otherwise, these people might fool you into believing there's something to them. There isn't, not to most of them, at least.

And I wouldn't know that and I might be fooled had I not done this. I learned a lot from that part of my life and through that as well as other experiences gathered, I've grown, moved on and learned. I'm a different person now and I am glad of that. You grow with the experiences you gather, and that includes bad ones. Hell, it mostly refers to bad ones, and you'd do well to remember that. Too often, we remain stunned that something bad or unpleasant happened, as if that wasn't part of the game. But treated right, those experiences/encounters/moments in your life are invaluable. Because you learn.

Yet, some people don't. As I said, I was surprised to find many people I'd known in my time there still doing that. See, that to me is a waste. It's no longer a beneficial experience, it's a missed learning opportunity. It's up to you to get yourself out of the mud, to get yourself unstuck. But some people don't do that, so they remain stuck forever. And it's depressing, but it's also a good lesson in itself. It's a warning. Because it's easy to get stuck, it's easy to waste your life. Hell, it's the easiest thing in the world mainly because there are just so many ways to waste time.

And some end up doing it forever and it's weird to witness, as I said, but you can't really be sad for these people, can you? Perhaps I'm overly harsh, but I tend to hold people to a strict rule and judgment. And if I, as well as many others, can pull ourselves out and right the wrongs or rather, learn from the wrongs and move on, why can't you? The way I see it, every person is responsible for their own life. No one else, and if you let someone else become responsible or if you willingly sign yourself away, become a passive observed or your own life, then that's on you.

So remember, folks, beware the old bald man. Always remember that any experience is an opportunity to learn, but that depends solely on you.

PS: I wanted to add some funny dirty old man meme. Don't search 'dirty old man' on Google pictures. Seriously, don't.

Thanks for reading,