Sunday, September 27, 2009


The Blog has been silent for a week while we were on a trip to Branson. We spent the time at Big Cedar and took in a few shows but tried to avoid the crowds at Branson as much as possible. Big Cedar is in a wilderness like setting and the internet and connection with cyberspace are discouraged. While there, I usually like to sequester myself in a chair and read. There wasn’t a lot of opportunity for reading on this trip but I picked up Dan Brown’s new book, “The Last Symbol.”

In the first few chapters of the book we are introduced to a sinister character who is covered with tattoos. I thought this was rather interesting because I had just purchased the book at a Books-A-Million store from a fat lady who was covered in tattoos. The lady seemed liked she should be part of a motorcycle gang but when ask about certain books she opened up with a knowledge of books that far exceeded the average person. It’s sometimes hard to tell about people at first glance but she was a real enigma.

This book lady, nevertheless, made me think about folks with tattoos. It’s something I have always associated with rough living, motorcycle types. In recent years even housewives get an ornamental tattoo, usually on the ankle. It’s a fad for rebellious, female teenagers to get painted above the cheeks of the buttock across the small of the back or over the back of the shoulder. Even more rebellious ones get a tattoo over the breast or other forbidden areas. Of course, it’s customary for young marines to get a tattoo and this is almost socially acceptable.

I am always reminded of Truman Capote’s experience while writing “In Cold Blood.” Capote interviewed all the serial murderers on death row in the US. He was looking for a common thread or trait among this group. We would have expected them to all be from broken homes, abused as children or drug addicts. None of those things applied to the majority. The thing they had in common was multiple tattoos. So, beware of folks with multiple tattoos are you may find yourself in the morgue.

I am now back on the porch with the Dan Brown book and it’s really a page-turner like his other stories. I haven’t even bothered to see how much the deer have eaten in my absence. “The Last Symbol” is the current bestseller. There is another very old bestseller on the porch that I read. In that great collection of books called the Bible is a book, Leviticus. Leviticus 19:28 says, “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord.” Need I say more?

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