His razor-sharp blades snap across the top of my son's head, sculpting what once was the wild mane of a 12-year-old boy into the perfect haircut for a handsome young man.

As he works his magic on the outside, he speaks his mind from the inside. His customers in waiting listen to his monologues about how we all play the game of life and who wins and who loses.Dustin is the barber and the proprietor of the Cutting Edge Barber Shop that sits at the end of a small strip of businesses on Route 903 in Jim Thorpe.He sells his ideas as if he were the neighborhood bartender telling you like it is when he pours you a drink. Instead of the tip of the bottle, you get the flash of the scissors along with Dustin's slant on random topics as he sees them through a window in his soul."We need to invest in ourselves and not in material and money," Dustin says. "Our young people are idolizing wealthy athletes and Hollywood stars when their heroes should be their parents and teachers."He kids about someone who has a "good head on his shoulders" and he's not only talking about a haircut. Raised in Albrightsville by blue-collar parents, Dustin began cutting his own hair as a young teen. Now he works his artistry upon a growing number of customers who come in to ask for a little off the top from the man who speaks from the bottom of his heart. Dustin was inspired to think outside the box by his mother who would find the time to plant his seed of good conscience "even in her darkest hour."He steps back from the chair to summon another thought."Immediately after 9/11, everyone came together as one people and we were kinder to each other and we showed respect for one another. But then, a few months later we forgot how precious life was and we went back to ignoring our neighbors."Dustin speaks of the good and bad about our "comfort zones." He says it's easier to "stay inside the matrix, " even though we know the wrong of doing so. "We are pulled from our noses like farm animals, herded back into our pens by the controllers of this country who hold political power and big money."We eat processed fast food hamburgers and fries," he says. "It tastes good, yet we know it will cause disease and sickness. Then we fall prey to the pharmaceutical companies who make us feel better, but they never cure us. Back in the day, the laws of the jungle were created by men who carried swords and shields. Nothing has changed except now the laws are enforced by corporate men who wear suits and ties."He says we spend too many hours working to pay our bills and we compromise the time that should be spent nurturing our children."We disconnect from our kids and leave them to run off with a pack of wolves."With wolves, the alpha becomes the leader and the rest of the pack follows. The weak will be left behind. That's how it is with young people today."Dustin explains that too many children are not taught core values of compassion and conscience. "There will be parents who dump their alligators and snakes into the river where we all have to swim."He rolls out a new thought with a crank of the barber chair."Our houses are nothing more than shelters in which we sit addicted to social media. As people we are meant to mingle face-to-face with each other."Dustin advocates living in simple, small villages where humans can exist together as one race instead of the racial divisions we have in today's society."We complain, but we do nothing. We're satisfied with a belly full of food sold to us by those who control how we live." He pauses to snip a hair at my boy's neckline. "Don't eat for three days and then you'll see how nice we would be. We are ungrateful parasites attached to a mother host who we can never leave."Dustin is a cut above many men of his young age. He is the dedicated father of young Dominic, and he and his fiancee, Adrianna, are expecting another child in November. To show his gratitude to those who support his business, he is having a customer appreciation day in the fall. Free haircuts are for kids. Five-dollar cuts for men with a spritz of his wisdom thrown in for free."I fully appreciate the life I have. My family is a blessing to me and I am humbled by the good fortune of doing what I love to do in my own business."He brushes away the hairs from my son's shoulders. "I am getting better at doing what we all should do more of, and that is to appreciate the moment like the one I'm having now and face tomorrow when it comes."Rich Strack can be reached at

katehep11@gmail.com.