Waking Up with Andy Crouch

Posted by J. Mark Bertrand
on Friday, April 21, 2006
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So far at Calvin, I've met a lot of people and swapped a lot of cards. I don't have time to give you all the enticing details, so instead I'd like to refer you to Andy Crouch's article on wet shaving in the latest Books & Culture. I haven't met Andy or swapped cards with him yet, but I hope to -- he's around here somewhere, apparently toting a Moleskine around (like yours truly). Sometimes I get the feeling that Andy is paving my path through life for me. He wrote a great article about the Calvin Festival, and here I am. He wrote a great article about the MINI Cooper S, and now I have one. He wrote a great article about judging the Christy Awards, and I've just finished doing that. Finally I've gotten ahead of him, though -- I've been promoting the cult of wet shaving for several years now. Still, Andy has given me a sound-bite to justify yet another of my obsessions:

The cartridge razor is safe, but it is ultimately dull. The double-edged razor, with apologies to Aslan, is not safe, but it is good. It is good to be at risk. It is good for me to face myself and hear the myriad plinks of each hair being numbered and shorn. It is good to wake up.

All right, men. It's time to wake up. Andy Crouch said it, I believe it, and that settles it. Dump your Mach 3s and your Sensors and your turbo-charged shaving junk and get a decent, manly double-edged razor. When in doubt, seek the wisdon of Charles Roberts at Enchante in Austin. This is your final warning. The future is about to leave you and your foamy shave cream can behind.

Also, tonight I get to see Salman Rushdie in action for the first time. Apparently he's been speaking in the area, including an appearance yesterday at Lawrence University, which made it into the papers.