November used to be a pretty quiet month.
Back in the day I used to work most of my school visits through the bulk of October and then November would start to slow down. The tourist trade would dwindle for the winter and the New Age bookshop where I worked at would grow pretty quiet as well.
This year, however, November is a little livelier.
Let’s start with Halloween.
I always enjoy dressing up for work and I decided this year that I was going to shave off my beard – which I have worn for over twenty years – as part of my costume.
“Why don’t you try a Fu Manchu mustache?” my wife asked me. “I have always wanted to see you in one.
Which led to this.
However, this year I had also quietly decided to myself that I was going to take part in Movember and grow my own mustache. Now I know some fellows would be happy just to do it this way – shaving their beard and leaving the mustache – but I decided that I wanted to start with a clean slate.
Which led to this.
If you click this photograph it will take you directly to my Movember fundraising page. I feel a little guilty about this – especially because I spend so much time jumping up and down asking folks to buy my books – but I feel this is a battle that we all need to pitch in on.
I have got a few reasons for this gesture.
Like I said – I have been thinking about this for a while. I want to take part. I don’t really know how it works – but I want to do my bit to raise awareness for prostate cancer.
Cancer – ANY sort of cancer – is a big scary development in ANYBODY’s life. I have seen the effect it can have on the people who suffer from it. I have seen first-hand the effect on the family of cancer victims.
If you want to talk about ghost stories – let’s talk about that fellow who used to be there. We all know him. He’s your brother. He’s your uncle. He’s your barber, your mailman, your hockey coach and your best friend. Cancer is like a kind of world-wide vampire that sucks the life out of good people all across this planet. I am just one man but I would dearly love to shine a light strong enough to wither cancer into nothing more than a dark memory.
I don’t have any more words to fight with so let me just throw my whole damn face at the thing.
So now, I am a Movember Man.
I’ve raised a little bit. Hopefully, I will raise a little bit more. I have even joined a Movember group called NS WRITERS . If any of you Nova Scotia writers who follow my column feel like pitching in and joining up you are more than welcome. All that is required is a clean-shaven face and a willingness to grow yourself a mustache.
I feel pretty good about this. The only real problem is that my wife thinks that I look like this guy now that I am clean shaven.
Any Third Watch fans out there?
In addition to Movember I have also decided to take the plunge into NaNoWriMo this month.
YOURS IN STORYTELLING... 