“Oh the times, they are a-changin’.”

That statement was part the lyrics from a 1964 song by Bob Dylan which, like most Dylan songs, became very popular during a decade when our country was undergoing transformations in music with the British Invasion, war protests with our involvement in Vietnam, the country going through the “Hippie” Generation, and the tragic assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Indeed the times, they were a-changin’ in the 1960s.

And here we are living in the 21st century, in the two-thousand-teens, and once again, the times, they are a-changin. Walk down the street and observe. We see different styles of clothing, we see extensive body ink adorning both males and females, we see body piercings that don’t just stop at ear lobes, and we see hair sporting so many other colors, many more than the conventional blonde, brunette and redhead look worn back in the day.

Recently I had a procedure that used ultrasound to pulverize a kidney stone which showed up on an X-ray about a year ago and further X-rays showed it was getting bigger. My doctor said the procedure to pulverize was to avoid future problems, kind of nipping the problem in the bud, so to speak.

I agreed to the procedure and scheduled a time and day when it could be done. I showed up at the scheduled time and was greeted by a very pleasant nurse who welcomed me and explained what was going to happen in the next hour or so for me. I was then led to the first room where a second very pleasant young nurse sat me down and took all of my vitals while explaining more to me and asking me if I had any questions. As I sat there listening to her and feeling very calm by her demeanor, her “bedside manner,” and her smile and personality, I couldn’t help but notice that the color of her hair was a shade or two darker than a powder blue, and her finger nails, alternately, if recalled correctly shared somewhere near the colors found on the flag of Sweden.

Her hair color was different, different from what it might have been in a previous decade (blonde, brunette, redhead), but she wore it well. During her entire performance of her duties in explaining things to me and taking my temperature and blood pressure, I felt absolutely no different than I have felt when nurses with “conventional” hair and nail colors have done the same jobs. Recently too, I’ve read stories about other nurses and professionals who’ve been openly questioned by some with non-conformist feelings, as to how a nurse (and again, I guess you can say any job, profession, or career) could have a job like that with different than “normal” hair color, or with visible body ink, or with multiple facial piercings. One particular piece spoke of a young lady wearing a hospital I.D. tag who was met in a shop and was questioned by a couple of elderly women as to what she did at the hospital. After finding out she was a nurse, they began to comment on her “different” hair color, her body ink, and her piercings, and how she could have a job like that with the “oddities” of her appearance. She responded by saying, “I don’t recall that my hair color has ever stopped me from rescuing someone’s life.” She went on by saying, “My tattoos have never stopped a patient from holding my hand while he cried out of fear for what was about to happen.” She then said, “My ear piercings never got in the way as I listened to them when they talked about better days or whispered their last will.” And she followed that up by stating, “My tongue piercing never stopped me from saying encouraging words when a patient had received a terrible diagnosis, or a family was in mourning.” She finished her comments with the statement, “So please tell me how my appearance stops me from being a good nurse?”

I am 63 years old. I’ve been known to be very set in my ways. In the past, I’ve probably had questions like the two elderly women had in the piece referred to above, but I look back on my career as a teacher, and I look at when I first interviewed for jobs back in the ’70s, I had long hair (when I had hair), I always had some kind of facial hair [mustaches (I haven’s actually seen my upper lip since I was a junior in high school 46 years ago), full beards, partial beards, I even had mutton chops once] and I’m sure people had certain feelings about my appearance, especially in the job I had back then. Fortunately, the school district considered my abilities over my appearance and I was able to have a thirty three year career in education, and I am still at it, substituting, still sporting facial hair, and I now even have a tattoo also, none of that inhibiting me to do the job for which I was, or is, employed.

There are employers who restrict what their employees can sport. They have that right. If I have my own business or run a big company, I, as the owner or CEO, can establish policy regarding expectations of my employees and what I feel is best for that business or company. If I sport tattoos or piercings and the company with the job I am interviewing for has a no piercing or tattoo policy, I should probably go to a different business/company that has no such policy to interview for a job. But, as in the case with the young nurse being questioned by the two elderly women, in places where there is no tattoo/piercing/hair color preference policy, does it really prevent them from effectively doing their job? Can a doctor with a neck tattoo practice medicine effectively? Why not? Can a woman with a lip piercing be an effective teacher? Why not? Can a person with what some may perceive as a “unique” hair color or hair style serve their community as a law enforcer, a fire fighter, or an emergency rescue person? Again, why not? Can young men, or women, effectively serve their communities as government officials, attorneys, retailers, chefs, bank managers, business owners, or whatever, if they may choose to color their hair blue, or get a tattoo, or have their nose pierced? Once more, why not?

I’ll admit, there are certain appearance expressions that I personally don’t care for and I choose not to have them. Facial tattoos, facial piercings, the larger ear hoops (sorry, I don’t know what they are called) are not my “cup of tea,” but if I needed service from someone in any job or profession and they happened to have any of these enhancements, I’d have no issue with a person with, or without, these adornments, doing those jobs for me. There was a lot that I “heard” from that young nurse in the article I read. Just as we shouldn’t judge a book by its color, we shouldn’t judge a person by their hair color.

“Oh the times, they are a-changin.” Yes, they are, and this AARPer is trying to embrace the uniqueness of people and change even a little bit to open my mind to these expressions of self. Not always easy, and I sometimes still fall back on older feelings, but then I remember another quote from a pretty popular book I’ve read periodically which says, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”