1. That handful of soft, yellow stuff, like the first wisp of tender grass in spring
When the razor went down, I almost fucking cried.
Not pretentious.
First, you hold the little meatball that smells like milk, and then the barber makes a "click" sound, and the thing that grows for the first time in his life falls lightly into my palm.
It was so soft that it was ridiculously soft, with almost no weight. However, when you clenched your fist tightly, you would feel heavy. It was a unique object that had been carried from your mother's womb, and belonged to him.
Then, I placed the small handful of lanugo hair in the corner of the drawer and mixed it with the product manual, medical insurance card, and uneaten probiotics.
I see it every time I open the drawer, and I never think about how to deal with it.
Until one day, it disappeared.
I lay on the ground and searched for three full hours, and finally found this small handful in the dust under the bed, with a piece of my hair attached to it. The hair was long and black, and at first glance it looked like it belonged to a middle-aged woman.
At that moment, I suddenly realized that if I didn't deal with it, this item belonging to "him" would be completely blended into "my" life and become indistinguishable.
Fetal hair pen: Can it really be used for writing?
Don't pretend, you and I both know it won't happen.
Qi Ji, a native of the Tang Dynasty, probably had never actually written a poem with that pen when he wrote "The inner hair is thin and the hair is thin, and the green clothes are newly cut and tightly bound."
It is what is offered.
However, it has its own benefits. His name, the specific time of his birth, and his weight are engraved on the pen barrel. At the same time, there are messages left by his parents. It looks like a three-dimensional birth certificate.
My best friend made a pen for her son and placed it in the most conspicuous place in the study. Whenever she was tutoring homework and wanted to hit someone because she was angry, she would take a look at the pen, take a deep breath, and then tell herself: This is her own, this is her own.
The process is said to have 72 steps.
For baby boys, the hair from the bridge of the nose to the forehead area is used as refill, which is called "dragon hair". For baby girls, the hair at the back of the neck is used as refill, which is called "phoenix hair".
Very particular.
But seriously, who cares about that now?
What you care about is what is sealed in that pen barrel. It belongs to the day when he lay in my arms for the first time and I lowered my head to smell the milky smell emanating from his head.
Lanugo Crystal: Make soft things hard
I love the paradoxical feel of this.
The lanugo is so soft that it floats away when the wind blows.
But if you seal it in crystal, it becomes hard, so hard that it can be passed down for generations.
Does it sound like a mother?
When a child is born, a certain place in your heart suddenly becomes hardened. It's not that your heart has become hardened, but that it's time to harden. Otherwise, how can you protect that soft little baby?
You can buy that kind of crystal pendant on Taobao for sixty or seventy yuan, or even cheap one for eighteen or ninety yuan.
But don’t think it’s cheap. I once saw a particularly touching souvenir of lanugo. It was sealed by a father with a broken crystal similar to the bottom of a beer bottle. It was presented in a crooked manner, and there was a hair floating in it. I don’t know if this hair belonged to him or the child.
He said: "I just want him to know that his father, I am clumsy in my hands but not clumsy in heart."
Earthy?
earth.
But it makes me want to cry.
Lanugo Seal: The moment it is stamped, it is a contract
The seal is interesting.
Nowadays, it is very rare for people of our generation to use seals. Instead, we often use signatures, fingerprints, and facial recognition to confirm identity. Who would still carry a seal around?
But you made a fetal hair badge for your child, and every time you take it out to use, you have to explain, "This is the hair of my child when he was born." By telling it like this, you become the kind of annoying maniac who shows off your child.
But what if he grows up?
What if you handed this seal to him when he happened to be eighteen years old, and then said: "From now on, you have to seal it yourself and take responsibility for your own affairs." The moment he took the seal, would he suddenly realize - ah, it turns out that my mother has been caring about me since I didn't have hair.
It can be made into square seals, round seals, and auspicious seals. You can even save a portion of the mother's hair and a portion of the baby's hair to make a "mother and child heart-to-heart" seal.
Some merchants say it can be preserved for more than a hundred years.
A hundred years later, we have long ceased to exist, but the seal still remains. There is a hair belonging to him personally on the seal, and there is also a hair belonging to me. The punctuation should be a period.
Thinking about it, I feel that giving birth to a child is not that bad.
Lanugo Painting: Painting with hair sounds like something a madman would do
But someone just did it.
Not just sticky.
It must be disinfected, degreased, and antiseptic first to ensure it is not rotten or moth-eaten.
Then one by one, stick the lanugo hair on according to the pattern.
It is said that there are more than ten kinds of silk, gold foil and crystal.
Imagine that those thin and soft hair can spell out a little tiger, or a lotus, or a child's zodiac sign.
My downstairs neighbor made a painting for his granddaughter and hung it in the middle of the living room.
I didn't pay attention the first time I went there, thinking it was an ordinary decorative painting.
Later she pointed it out to me: "These are all her lanugo hair." I took a closer look and it was true.
If you want to ask how to express that kind of shock, it is like you suddenly discovered that time can actually be witnessed.
But her granddaughter, who is eight years old this year, always finds that painting very ugly when she comes to her grandmother's house. She will also say, "Why is my hair posted on the wall? It feels so weird."
Children don't understand.
When she understands, the painting will be valuable.
Fetal car hanger: put the most precious things in the most dangerous places
I can't understand this choice, but I don't understand it very well.
Cars are on the road and are most prone to accidents.
But someone happened to hang the child's fetal hair on the rearview mirror and dangle it.
I once asked a friend who took this approach, and I asked: "Aren't you afraid of the eventuality?" She responded: "It is precisely because of the fear of the eventuality that she is hanging on like this. The purpose is to let him protect me."
I can't refute this logic.
A peach basket, a pig basket, a small bag sewn with red cloth, put the lanugo in it, and hang it in the car.
Every time you brake hard, the bag shakes, making you feel nervous, and then you drive slower.
My friend said that since she died, she has never exceeded the speed limit again.
I feel like there is a traffic policeman sitting on the back seat. The traffic policeman is very small and cannot speak, but he will stare at you with his eyes.
Finally, I would like to say a few heart-wrenching words.
In fact, no matter what you do, lanugo is lanugo.
It’s not that just because you spend thousands of dollars to create a painting, it will become more meaningful; nor is it that just because you randomly take an envelope and put it in a drawer, it will lose its value.
The meaning is given by yourself, not by the object.
But the problem is that our generation is too forgetful.
Thirty thousand photos are stored in my mobile phone, but none of them have been developed and printed. I once sent "Baby I love you" to my circle of friends, but after three days, I had forgotten whether I had written it or not.
The object we need should be placed where it can be seen, it can be touched by hand, it should be present within the visible range, and it should have characteristics that can be passed down.
It’s not to make him remember us in his heart, but to make us remember that the soft, yellow little object that was hard to even open our eyes fell off from our bodies.
As for which one to choose?
Choose the one you see most often.
Place it on the desk and take a look at it every time you feel tired after working overtime; hang it on the key and touch it every time you take out the key to open the door; make it into a seal and think about it for a second every time you sign.
That's enough.
(The full text is about 1180 words)
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