This Tattoo

One of my favorite music artists is David Wilcox who has a way of words to express all of life whether it's a watershed birthday, about love's addiction or the Waffle House. You have to check him out to know what I mean.

Anyway, he wrote this song about tattoos that always stayed with me. It's a reminder of not only the permanency of a tattoo but also of one's commitments. So, as a way to honor my mom and mark my 50th birthday, I decided to take the leap and get a tattoo. Yup, I did and it hurt like heck.  But what I love about my tattoo is that it has the double meaning of my mom's name and the spiritual reality of God's ultimate love.

It's unmerited favor.

It's Grace.

This Tattoo
With this tattoo you make a promise of who you are and what you think
this will be your binding contract written down in blood and ink
She had a life to live, the day she left home;
She vowed no surrender, No company drone
She wrote it down in crimson, she wrote it down in black
She wrote it down so deep, she's never gonna take it back

Make your clear and solemn vow before the age of compromise
Write it here and write it now always right before your eyes
This tattoo, this tattoo will hold your vision, always looking back at you
This tattoo, this tattoo, this tattoo

It isn't on the surface, it doesn't need to be
She wrote it down so deep, only she can see
She doesn't have to show it, it isn't made for show
She spells it out in action, its written on her soul

Make your clear and solemn vow before the age of compromise
Write it here and write it now always right before your eyes
This tattoo, this tattoo will hold your vision, always looking back at you
This tattoo, this tattoo, this tattoo

© David Wilcox, all rights reserved
Lyrics reprinted by kind permission of Soroka Music Ltd., all rights reserved

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Institutional Racism and Higher Education

Image
There's so much happening that it's hard to start, as it has been two years since I've written. From March 2020 to June 2020, much of the US (and the world) was shut down to the COVID-19 pandemic. It's strange to read my past postings and to find myself here - isolated most of the time and hesitant to leave the confines of my home due to this highly contagious virus which to date has killed over 500,000 and has infected over 14 million , and disproportionately impacted BIPOC . Then in May, our nation was roiled once again in racial violence with the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minnesota. As a result, many companies, organizations, and institutions published statements of support and a commitment to change. What's disheartening is that the murders of Black men, women, boys and girls have been happening for time out of mind, and in recent memory have been viewed and heard in social media for at least a decade. Four years ago I walked i
Read more

Split and Stereotyping

Image
***This posting has spoilers for the film "Split"*** Last weekend I went to see the film " Split ", which is about disassociative identity disorder  (DID) or is still commonly known as multiple personality disorder. For many of us, we think of the book " Sybil " back in the 70s then later the film featuring Sally Field as the client, Sybil. However, interestingly, the client admitted years later that she faked her diagnosis .  Although DID as a diagnosis is fairly uncommon although the  phenomena of disassociating  is more common that we think due to stress, trauma or even illness. As I watched the film, it was clear to me that there was a significant amount of stereotyping to depict the different identities such as "Barry" who liked to design clothes and had an affect that would be stereotyped as "gay." Another is that the film was reinforcing the belief that mental illness is over-the-top and beyond repair. Also that mental illn
Read more

Lost & Found

This morning I had an argument with my BF and it did not go well. No surprise. Also no surprise that the argument started at point A and ended up at point Z or what I'd call "planet mars." My poor BF, he had no idea what hit him (metaphorically of course) but neither did I. By the end of the argument, I found myself standing alone in the middle of the living room with tears threatening to stream from my eyes, and eventually they did. The feelings that arose were a powerful potion of regret, anger, sadness and perplexity as to my teaching experience in China in 92-93. As some people know, I was interrogated in China in 1993 and my visa was unexpectedly cancelled because I allegedly broke the law. Later, Chinese officials admitted that they "may have made a mistake" which is pretty much an outright confession for having done something wrong and being sorry for it. For years I always believed that what I set out to do in China came out of a sincere desire to
Read more