I am a part time boss, and I have ppl employed. One of my employees is a Caribbean girl that grew up with her rasta daddy at a banana plantation in Dominica. She had a rasta name (before she changed it) and she had dreads from the first day it was possible to dread her baby hair. She was carrying banana boxes from a child already, and she was forced to study the bible and the rasta religion. Up until today she is a hard worker, the best there is.When she saw her boss (me) dreading his hair, she wanted to vomit. The first thing she said was that dreads and whites don't gel. She completely hates dreads. Her teenage revolution was about cutting all her dreads off. That was how she was revolting against her daddy. Later on she changed her rasta name. And as the cherry on top she also hates weed.Now she is living as far from dreadlocks, rastas and Jah as she can. Except for her dreaded boss, that is.So that you know, many of us here is revolting by having dreadlocks... but it is actually possible to do it the complete opposite way around.

I have not been posting much the last couple of weeks. It is because of my autumn depression, I think. It's getting darker and darker, colder and colder and one must wear thicker and thicker clothes. I finally found a couple of hats to wear, I'm especially fond of an over sized felt hat that my wife found for me. It looks great with the dreads and it feels great too.But I am a lucky man, because me and my family will escape the winter in the beginning of December. We will all be leaving cold Sweden to go see our family in Cape Town, South Africa, where it's summer. We actually have more family there than we have here. We will stay until late January, almost seven wonderful weeks!Just the thought of that can make any autumn depression blow far away.

I've noticed that we now have google adverts on top of the page. Maybe we've had it all the time, but slow as I am I have only noticed it now. The ironic thing is that the ad-sensor has figured out that we might like dreadstuff and are trying to sell us wax and all the other stuff that we don't like. Kinda funny, I think. Maybe we should click the ads anyway, just to bring in some money to the forum. =)

I experienced something very cool last night. I was invited to a house concert with Francis Dunnery http://www.myspace.com/francisdunnerymusic without having any idea of what a house concert is. But God, it was soo cool. We were like 40 ppl gathering up in someone's house, paying by the door to see this guy, Francis Dunnery, that I never ever heard of before. He apparently used to be a front figure in some progressive rock band in the 80's.Anyway, Francis Dunnery proved to be the greatest of performers, he had the whole crowd under his spell for a hundred minutes, talking and singing for us. We all sang along and laughed ourselves sick listening to his stories. It was the best concert experience I had in years.This guy is doing house concerts all over the world, bookable sometimes via some of his webpages. If you want to share a cool experience with your friends, you should definitely book this guy. He is a blast.

I could never wear snobbish clothes before I had dreads. If I did, I always looked like one of the guys in "Days of our lives", combed, foolish and soppy. With snobbish clothes I mean a shirt and a jacket maybe. But now, with my dreads I can wear anything and still look, what I call "normal". Still look me, if you know what I mean? Identity again. One wants to look the way one feels like inside. And I definitely don't feel like one of the "Days of our lives"-guys inside. It's as far as one can get from my self image.Before I had dreads I had to dress down to feel comfortable and to fight against my soppy look. Now it is not necessary to do that anymore. My dreads has given me the freedom to dress the way I wanna dress.May seem like a stupid problem I had, but it was real to me.

What have I learnt since I joined this forum.I have learnt...1. ...that weed is a sensitive issue.2. ...not to use wax or a crochet.3. ...that somebody with dreadlocks can be just about anybody.4. ...that dreadlocks can represent thousands of things.5. ...to know quite a few lovely people.6. ...to love my dreadlocks even more than I did before I joined this forum.Thank U guys! =)

I think we would lie to ourselves if we did not admit that dreadlocks are heavily connected to identity. I think we all have been going through a process in which we have decided that dreadlocks blend in well with our identity, that dreadlocks fits into our own concept of whom we think we are.If I just briefly scan our community I can see that there are some herb smokers, quite a few mommies calling themselves hippies and a whole lot of ppl that feel they have a strong connection with nature. All that gelled very well with my preconceptions.But, as always, it is not as easy as one thinks. When I dig a bit deeper I suddenly see that there is a whole lot more to it. The herb smokers, hippie mommies and the nature lovers suddenly transform into separate individuals where the one is very different to the other one. And they are not alone, there is a whole lot of other characters dreading their hair, for a million various reasons, having just as many various interests and lifestyles.And when I've realized all this, slightly embarrassed about being narrow minded, I must also start wondering about who I am, what I am here for and why I am having dreadlocks?Where does this dreading grandpa fit into this? I don't smoke herbs, I am not a mommy, neither a hippie and even though I love gardening, I don't really feel that I am one with nature.

I've been digging today. Digging is a very nice thing to do. Like gym, but the natural way. I was digging with my mother. My mother is old, but she still digs. She does not live here, she lives two hours away. But today we were together for once. Digging together. Making things right in the garden. Making the soil better for the plants to grow in, by mixing it with nutritious stuff she knew about. I had the muscles and the motivation to learn, and my mother had the willpower and the knowledge. She remembered that I used to hate gardening, now I suddenly love it. Strange.So, my dreads were itching today. They were sweaty, under a beanie, in the rain. Now they are washed and happy. My body is sore and I am tired. It's midnight here and I'm going to bed.Life is wonderful.Over and out..