My hair is uncharacteristically long these days.
It is not my new normal. It is not the last gasp of a person staring at his 50th birthday in a few months. It is not a statement of fashion or frustration.
It could be the result of a summer spent making lunches rather than running errands.
In all likelihood, it's the simple realization that a mask and Great Clips go together like peanut butter and motor oil.
Avoiding a hair cut, in the grand scheme of things of what we are dealing with these days, is relatively easy for everyone save those cutting the hair. Not unlike wearing a mask to a dinner to celebrate some fella named Lincoln, but again, it's not all peaches and cream or as easy as 1, 2, Sheriff Hammond.
Still, the most confounding challenge confronting all of us starts Wednesday.
School, yay or nay?
The talking points are understandably filled with passion. It's our kids, after all.
READ MORE: Hamilton County braces for impact of schools reopening amid coronavirus pandemic
The facts, like most of the numbers and stats around the coronavirus, can be pointed in several directions.
The discussions are heated because, well, what serious conversations do we have that are not heated these days?
So, I say give it a whirl.
Of course we want the safest environment possible for our children. But that won't be possible, and it will never be possible - before coronavirus, during coronavirus and even after coronavirus.
There is no right answer, only the best bad answer. I respect the detailed, layered guidelines Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson and his leadership team have developed.
It will not be easy - heck, I imagine Dr. Johnson longs for the relaxing days of budget controversies, teachers' raises and the complexity of the word equity. Side question: Does anyone have a tougher job than Dr. Johnson these days? Seriously, I'll wait.
In truth, while Dr. Johnson and I have not always seen eye-to-eye - or eye-to-elbow for that matter - but I applaud him for trying to make this work.
Because calling it quits before we ever start is not leadership. It's a reactionary decision that far too often is based as much on not being second-guessed more than being safe. Making decisions in an effort to avoid after-the-fact finger pointing is not about caution; that's about fear.
That our schools are making every effort is meaningful. Meaningful to the employees, school communities, parents, and most of all, students, who by and large overwhelmingly want to return to school.
Because it will, at least for as long as we can make this work, feel closer to normal than just about anything since early March.
My hair notwithstanding, of course.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com.