Painting by Pamela Schiermeyer
For most of you reading this I’m guessing you are way under 70
years old. In fact, when thinking about
this number in years, I thought, “Wow! I
wonder what it’s it like to be 70?”
Generally speaking, age is a matter of relevance. If you don’t
feel your age, its not relevant! Or is it? This begs the question of how
it feels to be any particular age. How
did it feel to be one or two years old?
That’s silly, right? No one
thinks about it at that age.
How did it feel to be sixteen or eighteen or twenty-one? Those were pretty special ages and
significant in what we perceived would happen in our lives at that time. And one would have to factor in what was
going on around us at that time. Was it
happy or a sad, good or bad?
Why do we even think or feel a certain way about age? I’m guessing that as civilizations emerged
people began to put emphasis on their age.
Sometimes it didn’t even matter about one’s intellectual or physical capabilities. Young kids were put to work. Old people were set aside and sometimes even
left behind. Well, I seem to be getting a
bit too serious.
I’ve talked to some really old folks, like in their 80’s and
90’s and asked “What was your favorite decade.”
Most of them answered “This one!”
But then they were all rather healthy and mobile. I was also told that by the time you’ve
reached 70 most any horrible thing that will happen in life has happened. That in itself seemed subjective, but that’s
what they said.
So, given the comments and adjectives I got for reaching my
70th birthday—which I’ve been told is actually my 8th
decade and totally blew my mind—I decided to get a tattoo. My kids have always wanted me to get
one. We were supposed to all get a
tribal symbol that would link our family. That didn’t happen, so based on the fact I
have had a spirit animal guide since I was 10, (and that’s another story for
another time,) I decided to get a tattoo of a sea turtle on my right forearm.
I did some research and creative drawing and came up with a
small figure and took it to a professional tattoo artist. We set up a date on my birthday. He took my drawing and worked it up a bit and
I approved.
I won’t go into details, as most of you probably have had a
tattoo, or have seen one done. It took
about an hour. Maybe it’s because my
skin is grandma aged, or maybe it’s because my forearm is more tender than
other places, but I will tell you, it hurt like hell! I don’t think giving birth was that bad. But maybe.
At one point a very tall and husky bald man dressed in black
leather came over to check things out. He had tattoos everywhere—running up his
shoulder, his neck, and to the top of his head.
He asked, “How ya’ doing?”
I told him it was a bit more painful than I thought it would
be. Then I asked him, “How did it feel
to get your head tattooed?”
He said he couldn’t remember, which I thought to myself,
really IS a lot like childbirth.
Raise your hand if you've got a tattoo ---
