I think we tried at least 18 different placements - the tattoo artist’s hands were purple with the stencil dye. It’s less than two inches long, but I underestimated how much my skin actually rotated when I moved my arm. The difficulty began when we were trying to place the thing on my wrist. All we had to do was print it out and make it into a stencil. I wanted the word in Steinbeck’s handwriting, and I had found that someone else had already gone to the trouble of standardizing his handwriting into a font, so I had an exact photo ready to go. He called me, surprised, and I told him that I felt like it was the right moment. I texted a photo of myself with the shop’s sign to my boyfriend. So, after a few hours of research and filled with adrenaline, I got in the car and drove to the shop I’d selected. And I wanted a reminder of that with me always. East of Eden continues to grant me wisdom, no matter how many times I read it, but timshel is the thing that has stuck with me most – my path is mine to choose. And the book itself reminds me of a particularly difficult period in my life – a time when I desperately needed an inner peace to guide me. Cultivating an ongoing understanding of humanity gives my work purpose. It is always attacked and never destroyed – because ‘thou mayest.’”Īs a writer myself, I was struck by the beauty of transcending generations of language and culture to find the truest meaning of a single phrase. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul.
0 kommentar(er)
