And did you get what you wanted from this life…
Dan has two tattoos….
“I got this one 2 years ago…just before a long relationship was ending. I got this because Raymond Carver’s poetry is this most important poetry to my life. And this one in particular crystallizes and reminds me of things I try to remember. That the good things in life are not physical things. not objects…that the stuff that I really value and want to go after is feeling, and experience, and fulfillment itself. And so this reminds me whatever happens from here on out, I already have the good stuff. My life’s already fulfilled. And anything else that happens after now is just gravy. Icing.
“And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.”
It does a good job of reminding me of the stuff I wanted to be reminded of, weather it was because it is in front of me, or it was just time, whose to tell. But I think I have been more present with the idea.
- Looking at the tattoo from Dan’s perspective
Outside of my life, I have spoken to more people than I had in my entire life before getting the tattoo. This (referring to the tattoo on his forearm) gets people’s attention. Clerk’s and cashiers in particular. People get a particular look when they are reading my tattoo and are trying not to be seen… so I get to see people in those unguarded moments when they are readying and don’t know that I know.
