… to forty that is. I know that this day and age
the life expectancy is around seventy and reaching forty is not a big deal, but
I consider each day a gift (that is, when I remember!), not a given. People often
ask me what the tattoo on my left arm represents, and I usually just say it has
a personal meaning, because it is rather cheesy after all, but now that I am
forty, I don’t really care anymore what people think! So here it goes: The
tattoo is of a bird atop a human skull.
Some may regard it as dark and ominous
– as does my husband – when as a matter of fact it is a symbol of life and
balance for me. Its original inspiration
is taken from the works of Carlos Castaneda, an anthropologist who wrote a
series of books in the seventies recounting his experience with a shaman named
Don Juan in Mexico (warned you it was cheesy). Aside from all the folklore
(there are, after all, eleven volumes), Castaneda explores Don Juan’s
philosophy which rests on the assumption that life is a dance with death and
that death should be a friend and a ally, and not an enemy to be kept at bay at
all costs. Ok so I am resuming eleven volumes plus my interpretation in one
sentence. Anyway Carlos for me touched the core of what it means to be human, as
did the Buddha and Woody Allen.
There is a very intense Buddhist practice from
Tibet (not sure if this is still in place) where the novice monks are led to a
burial ground where they meditate before decaying bodies as these are torn
apart by wild dogs. There is no drama, no attachment to the physical form, it
is simply the natural passage from one state to the next, a part of life. I
know that is a bit extreme but it comes together nicely with Don Juan’s view of
death. Oh, as for the bird on the skull, it is a crow, which symbolized Don
Juan’s own death; his shadow. The skull is I guess more related to the Buddhist
mediation practice on death. Anyway, happy birthday to me!
