Thread: I’m irritated and annoyed! But also grateful.

There are some things I feel we, or I at least, need to acknowledge.

Perhaps we as a group of dedicated straight razor users should have seen this coming. Just as the more senior fly fishers (of which I am one) were distraught and annoyed by the Yuppies invading fly fishing after the movie “A River Runs Through It”, we straight “Old Bulls” complain about the new guys driving up prices on Filarmonica, Puma, Wade & Butcher choppers, and damn near everything else. I recently read a post that denigrated opinions from members who may have joined a shaving forum after 2009!

Gentleman, we should rejoice that new converts to the straight blade come to us every day.

That said, I am the first to confess impatience. At times I wish to grab these insolent interlopers by the neck and cry “Just shut up with the questions and do as we say;” But, alas, they are intelligent and rightfully question and challenge us, albeit
sometimes with disrespect And in all that is Holy why should they not? Even though we are the keeper of the way, few are experienced enough to qualify as a true guide through this maze. In retrospect their questions and challenges seem proper (but not the disrespect), concerning the way that leads to deeper understanding. So who among us is orthodox? So what if I’m irritated and annoyed! But also grateful.

Orthodox there is? Is the Zen of Shaving with a straight blade orthodox? I think not. We of the straight blade are to be counted among the true individualists (and conservationists) of the 21st Century!

Please, let us welcome these new converts to what a good friend once described as “The One True Way.”

Let us have patience with the new traveler within our community, for it is our community and it is growing, no matter if we like it or not. We are becoming more a society than a community.

Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft,. Ferdinand Tönnies.