Chapter 14: The Light Says I Love You
Every morning, my father spent HOURS perfecting his hair.
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“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
My dad, Raleigh Dillon Jr., looked just like JFK. I thought he was handsome — beautiful even. The likeness was undeniable. Which is why I couldn't understand how America could call JFK “our best and most handsome president” while my dad kept telling me the whole problem with his miserable life was that he was so ugly.
Every morning, my father spent HOURS perfecting his hair. It was naturally brown but by the time he was 35 or so, became a gleaming silver. No matter how long he combed it, patted it, fussed with it, it never looked any different. It was a puzzle to me. Why could he not see that no matter what he did, his hair never changed, never moved even? Did he not know that his hair was the exact same shape as the dead hope for America's?