13/31

Links to 12/31 &
the 31 Things Launch Post

This is my newest flat cap. (Insert giddy smile here.)

Dear friends, do some research on why men wear caps. Yes, there's some controversy (a certain red cap comes to mind, insert barf emoji here). But head-gear is not necessarily a signifier for intimidation or rebellion or tribalism.  

I grew up on the Canadian prairies where baseball caps were the norm, practically prescribed at birth, and although most of the men in my life wore them—my father, my brothers, my uncles, some of my friends—I knew they didn't feel right for me, with one exception: a gentle cap-wearing man I much admired. More on this below....

In the meantime, I became an educator and I swear that the most contentious and lengthy topic at my very first staff meeting was about enforcing the hat rule. It's disrespectful! It's uncivilized! It's profane! Sigh. Suddenly I wanted to start wearing a cap. 

But nope. Instead I enforced the stupid rule and sometimes it undermined forming connections with the teen boys I was attempting to convince that Hamlet was more tortured intellectual than massive whinger. (Spoiler: he was both.) Coincidentally, this same topic was discussed at one of my last staff meetings, THIRTY-SOME YEARS LATER. After about a decade in education exclusively working with teachers, I had returned to the classroom and was shocked that this hat ideology nonsense was still a raging debate. Puh-leeze. 

By then, I was wearing my own head-gear. Why? I became a Grandpops! I always knew if I ever had the privilege and joy of joining this club, I would wear a flat-cap to signify this most important milestone, to embrace aging minus the grumpy disposition, and most importantly, to emulate my own gentle grandfather. Side note: I must admit I was so removed from the hat culture loop then that I hilariously misnamed my grandfather's flat cap, lol.

Thank goodness hat ideology has evolved (more of this in schools please) because dear friends, my flat-cap is all sorts of fit mental health vibes: gratitude for my favourite five, pride in my identity, a daily mental health boost, and a most meaningful vibrant thing.