Quite frequently I have hangnails and if not a hangnail, then I have completely shredded off those testy pieces of skin that surround my nail with my teeth. I'm fairly certain a phsychologist would consider me to have an "oral fixation." This taking into consideration that I have a tendency of chewing the insides of cheek's to shreds as well. But if you are friend or family, you know this by now. It's like my mouth is a bad scene of Sister Act, but it was never able to break the habit. Whoopi was a better showgirl than nun anyway. But big ups because she did teach Lauryn Hill that if she wanted to be somebody and go some where she better wake up and pay attention. I'm assuming this was a hard knock to take considering she disappeared after her mis-education. Its all quite ironic. Whoopi taught her have her own voice, and The Mis-education of Lauryn Hill made her famous.
Wycleaf Jean has nothing on Whoopi's dreads.
And if you have no idea what I am talking about, then quite obviously you have never watched Sister Act 2, and the lyrical genius of "Doo Wop That Thing" and you never understood how something could kill you softly.
Back to hangnails.
Hangnails and brokennails, like life, are nothing but oddities. You spend days, weeks, months, or even weeks growing these long beautiful nails. You keep your hand well moisturize and keep your cuticle trimmed. Your dainty fingers have the image of perfection. You frequently change the nail polish and file them into quaint squares or ovals. You spend hours, and sometimes hard earned money, to ensure your fingers do not look like nubs, and then in the blink of an eye, it's gone, the ever so feared jagged nail. You have no choice but it cut it and start the process all over again.
They tend to show up at the most inopportune times, like when you have no file or when you get the nail that rips on its own accord, you have no control over it, but it rips to the quick and it leaves that dainty finger exposed, and feels like you are repeatedly pouring salt in an open wound. You have to meticulously trim the remaining nail to not expose to much damaged skin. And hangnails emerge showing this hardened, dry layer that is not a shield, as it to has to be trimmed away leaving your finger exposed. You trim to little, the skin is still there, you trim to much and feel the coolness of fresh blood.
Like life, you wake up each morning given the chance to breathe and reinvent yourself. You get to paint on a fresh coat every morning and trim up the edges of your being. Maybe it is all for image sake, but each day we have the opportunity to reinvent ourselves. And all it takes it one wrong move and your inner being is exposed, and you trim up the edges to protect yourself, to make yourself whole. There is a tough outer layer, a layer you use to as a shield, if you trim to much you are left broken, if you trim to little, you never feel the joy or happiness of smooth skin.
And like hangnails and broken nails, at the end of the day life can piss you off.
