Fast forward. After many years, I let the beard grow again. It’s a ritual I observe when there are big life changes coming.

One Monday six months ago, it happened again. Shortly after a yoga class a fellow student broke the 7am silence of packing up. He was certain that I could pass for Luke Skywalker. Not the young Jedi in the white costume of the late seventies. But the crusty, self-secluded hermit. That put me into another exercise to see how true it might be.