I was in the library today and a lady called out to me,"Excuse me, we were just admiring your wonderful dreadies, and we hoped to find out what they say about you." She clearly jumped to the chase, but I appreciated the avoidance of library small talk. Being accustomed to dealing with the typical prejudices like "do you wash them?", I paused and considered my response. Part of me wanted to answer her with the same question about her 'shoulder-length-bleach-blonde-pantene-perfect-silky-hair', but this would clearly would be rude of me; after all, she asked me with a polite inquisition. Another part of me wanted to let her know that what they said about me had everything to do with her interpretation rather than my intent. But alas, rude again, I feared. Eventually I responded: "They are a tool to make my life more comfortable. Purely functional." I elaborated further, "They COULD mean that I worship a particular faith, or that I avoid bathing, anarch from society and ingest a variety of substances, but to me, these knots in my hair - and that's all they are - serve to avoid the discomfort of having a reckless unshorn sheep prancing about my head on a daily basis." She seemed pleased with this response. This got me thinking about tools. The one pictured here - a crochet hook - is a tool with the skills of Moses. It parts all #dreadheads who encounter it. I struggle to understand why. While some argue that it "damages structural integrity" and others label it with "the natural way to make #dreadlocks", I pose that it all depends on how you use it. Emphasis again on its status as a tool, after all, our success as a species rests with our ancient ancestor who decided to free up their arms for tool use by standing upright in the vast savannah. Give two folk a hammer, one can build a deck, the other smash his kneecap apart. Clearly vastly different results. Intent and interpretation are transformative qualities that exist in the empty spaces between symbols and their function, leading to an infinite amount of meanings or results. The same goes in this case. Personally, they have served me well, and now I make my own. See link in bio (shameless plug). #dreadlife