In my pursuit of growing the biggest most fluffiest beard I could manage, I stumbled across a few parallels; like having HIV, growing a beard comes with a daily consideration to care for and protect jealously this undeniable force of your identity, without ever allowing that force to identify you. It also comes with a heightened sense of self-preservation, to not just lean into my curiosities and live but to raise the standard on what it looks like to thrive. That both journeys have required that I surrender myself. Not to “give up” but to radically “give in.” To radically embrace my faith, power and convictions especially when I can’t always be in control. My beard, in many ways, feels like I’m growing the answer to something, that I stopped questioning—who I was and started becoming. Like having HIV, growing a beard has become one of my greatest teachers. So, today I get in the picture to celebrate all of our other daily considerations, and how it’s been a million dollar audacity to grow a beard.
