I’ve had had confusion for much of my life. When you get bald, hats matter more, to keep the sun and bugs off and the warmth in. I’ve worn a lot of baseball caps, but never really felt they were right for me. Maria never liked them either, and often makes faces where I wear them – Maria is not big on subtlety when it comes to the things I wear.

Walking down the street in Brooklyn the other day, I past a trendy hat shop and for some reason, went in. It is not the kind of place I normally browse. The hip and extremely gorgeous young salesman swooped down and pulled out a big brown hat, it was me, he said, and only only $170. I gulped, Maria is not subtle about insanely over-priced things either.

My eye landed on big blue slouch hat sitting over by itself in a corner and I went to put it on. The salesman didn’t say much.

“Well, I don’t know if it’s you,” he said, dubiously. “Look,” I said, “if I looked like you, I’d probably get the other hat. But this one is me, I think, it just speaks to me, it has some color, some style, it fits and will keep the sun off of me, I live on a farm upstate…”

And it did speak to me, I liked the style and feel of it and so I bought it. It cost $60, three times as much as a baseball cap but I will wear it until ti disintegrates on my head, I hope.

I think I may have found the hat I was looking for all of these years. “It goes look pretty good on you,” the salesman conceded as I headed out the door. I like it more every time I see it. So does Maria.