So I have taken a little break from blogging. My real life is getting a little too intense to blog about and I don’t need the world in my legitimate issues. But during my time off, I have been really interested in getting a tattoo. I have wanted one since I was five (I know I was a strange kid) but at this point I don’t think I can do it. I have been really thinking about what I would want to get if I did decide to though. What is it that I enjoy so much that I would forever want to imprint it under my skin? Aside from my fiance and my mother hating tattoos, I have other problems with them. See the new problem with tattoos is that everybody and their mom has one. And not just has one, has one that they insist means something.
“Well my cousin’s step brother died and his name was Ray Ray so I got a Ray of sunshine because it stands for all the times we spent playing in the sun together”.
That is just nonsense. If I got a tattoo of every person I know that passed away and every personal tragedy in my life, I would have sleeves. So as a result, I am avoiding any kind of tattoo with “meaning” or “purpose”. So those are out of the question. But that doesn’t answer the conundrum of what I love so much and so dear that I am willing to coat my skin in ink to justify it. So I have really been thinking about it and what I always come back to is reading. Yes, that is dorky of me. Stop judging.
But on a deep personal level I looooove to read. I remember being three years old and seeing my older brother go to and from school with books as he learned to read and being just so frustrated and perplexed because I could not seem to get a handle on the hyrogliphics that was the English language. I cried for DAYS because Andrew could read and I couldn’t and this is so much more than my sibling rivalry with him. I remember my mom telling me, “It’s okay, when its your time, it’ll be your time” and she was right. Once I finally got it down, I took off running. In a time where friends were inconsistent and untrustworthy, books were always there for me. When teenage angst was piling up to my eyeballs, I could get lost in the world of someone else who was going through what I was going through. During a times of transition of my life, like coming to college, strong women like Hermione Granger and Hester Prynne and Baby Suggs were there to keep my company and reassure me that my life was not nearly as hard as I was making it out to be.
There is nothing that I love more and take for granted more than the ability to read. For every picture book that I skimmed and every AP English book that I spark noted, I apologize. I am at the point in my life now, that I read with voracity. Reading is now at the tips of our fingers, Nooks, Ipad, Kindle, all have the capability for Epubs, Amazon Cloud and Ebooks. You can even read on a first edition Ipod! This accessibility is a double edged sword though. Books are only this accessible if you are privileged. If I consider it long enough, I will burst into literal tears at the notion that there are children -and adults- in the world that have no idea how to read. So much information is inaccessible to them because they lack money and the education in order to read. In Hosea 4:6, the Bible says “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge”. Whether you believe in the Bible or not, you have to understand that there is some truth to that. There is a reason why America, Japan, China, France, etc are world powers. In America alone, we have a 99% literacy rate. Even our most ignorant citizens can read.
And so, I concluded that if I were to get a tattoo that it would be literary in nature and I have narrowed it down to three things.
The Giving Tree was a book I read as a child and never forgot. The trees selfless love and devotion for the little boy and the story was something I hoped to emulate and personify in my own life. She so graciously gave of herself over and over until she had nothing left and even her nothing was something to the boy that she loved so dearly. I would love that as a gentle daily reminder.
I also like the Persian proverb “this too shall pass” and no that isn’t a Bible verse. So often, I allow myself to get worked up and anxious about events and people that I know are not going to be permanent fixtures in my life. Most events, positive or negative, will not last forever and if I can just have the clarity, in that exact moment, to realize that, I wouldn’t half the things in my life upset me the way they do.
And last but certainly not least, Harry Potter. This quote means so much to me. Aside from my obsession with Harry Potter right now, this quote lends itself to where I am in my personal life. With another transition period coming up, graduation and prayerfully into graduate school, everyone has their own tidbits of advice that need to be weighed through with discernment. This quote really speaks to me in that, I would rather have weighed that advice than have to be disgruntle if those people are correct in the future. So these are my tattoos and we will see if I actually do any or all of them.