The World
1:05 AM
The 1st of March is the sign that the NCAA basketball tournament is on the way. All of the excitement of college sports is summed up by this. The little guys against the big guys. The 15 beating the 2. The sub 500 winning their conference tourney to sneak in. I wasn’t thinking about that today. “Andrew, are you sure you want to come out today,” my 10:30 interview said over the phone. We were supposed to get 10 inches of snow.
If I were back in Charlotte, we would have a snow day, maybe bundle up and take a walk, maybe start a fire and grab some wine, but here in NY, snow is snow and we press on. “I think I’ll give it a go,” I said. I was feeling adventurous and wanted to get out of the house.
And I made my way out to a car buried under ice and snow. I stepped from the street to the car and had my pant leg covered. I threw my books, tape recorder and camera into the passenger seat. I started the car and got out the trusty snow brush. My hat was on. My scarf secure. I tightened my gloves and started the day off right, with a good old fashioned snow scraping.
I have become much more skilled at this. To think at one point last winter I used a knife to scrape off of some of the ice in Charlotte. I nicked my car up. Not any more. Ice and snow onto the ground. First my window, then working to the back. Swipe off snow. Scrape off ice. Onto the back. Swipe, scrape. Grab wiper, scrape it off. Passenger windows. Then passenger windshield. Loop back around to avoid the big pile in the front of my car and to my vision window. Swipe and scrape. Wipe the snow off of me, kick the snow off of my shoes and in today’s case, wipe it off of my pant legs, and hop into a warmed up car. And I was off, just like I’d never missed a winter in 11 years.
The roads were fine and I made the drive on course with my Mapquest directions. I arrived at about 10:45 and met Stacey, a mitrologist. My Word program does not recognize a mitrologist, but it is one who studies hats. As I learned, Stacey was a hat and headdress expert. My imagination is pretty strong, so I was totally into the stories she told me. “This hat was worn by the tribal leader in Burma and symbolizes…”
“This is a Tibetan headdress used for rites of passage…”
“This is from China. They used this to ward off evil spirits…”
Each hat and each headdress had its own story. Its own history. Its own meaning. I was transported to India, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Burma, China, Tibet, Thailand and so many other countries I’d heard of but didn’t know that much about. Stacey was not just a hat collector, she was a researcher. She could tell you the tribe or clan. She could tell you the type of person who wore it. Why this color meant the girl was not married. Why this piece used to be used as currency but now shows power. So many stories.
A journal type entry does not do today justice. The details were incredible. The colors vibrant. The craftsmanship impeccable. We don’t have hats like I saw today.
With over 800 hats and a traveling museum collection, Stacey is the expert. I spoke with her for 5 hours. We had lunch. We talked about travel and politics and of course, hats. Her gift is interesting because the things she’s experienced in her life have called her to do this. She did not set out to be a mitrologist, but it called her. And she is.
She was the world at her fingertips. All she has to do is pick up a hat and she can go wherever she wants.
What a day. As I said, the journal does not do this justice. I normally don’t post links, but to explain what I saw, go to www.hathorizons.com. I need to go to bed.