Thanks--30 Days in 1

Many of my friends have been participating in 30 Days of Gratitude in the month in which the United States celebrates Thanksgiving.  I decided not to at the beginning of the month as I was not sure that I could maintain participation.  However, with a little bit of extra time on this Thanksgiving day, I figured I would put in all 30 days at once.  So that this entry does not go on forever, I will write just a few sentences about each thing I am thankful for.  

1-Sherry...from some "chance" meetings in the dining hall in East Halls when she ate dinner at a crazy early time because she was working some evenings and I ate dinner at a crazy early time because I was just hungry to 21 years, 5 months, and now 8 days of marriage, I have an enormous amount to be thankful for.

2-Chance meetings...chance meetings back in college were not always as random and chance as they may have appeared, but chance meetings in general are fun.  And when they happen with family and good friends, they bring a smile to my face that is worth an enormous amount.

3-Randomness...chance meetings are just one reflection of randomness in life.  Serendipity.  Things happen by chance in a way that turns out to lead to wonderful new opportunities and insights into life.  Sometimes the randomness can be a curse, but more often than not in my life it has been a blessing.

4-Friends...one way to keep a marriage going is to live in a community of good friends who listen, who are willing to be straight with me when things are not going well, who share their burdens with me, who share my goal of a lasting marriage for me, and with whom I can laugh.  Of course, all these things need to go for me and Sherry as well, but having close friends you can turn to for advice is a great way to help to keep things going.

5-Serenity prayer...this is another aspect of keeping a good marriage going.  To realize that there are some things that cannot change.  To truly have the courage to change the things I can.  And to have (and pray to God for) the wisdom to know which is which.

6-My sons...having mentioned my thanks for Sherry and the community of close adult friends, I have to reflect on the fact that Sherry and I have raised three pretty incredible boys.  We'll never know what would have become of the two other pregnancies but the lives we were lucky enough to bring here to live independently on Earth have turned into pretty amazing people.

7-Extended family...this completes the circuit on family.  I have so many incredible people in my family doing interesting things in interesting places, and yet much of the family is still in the same area where I grew up making it relatively easy to get together when we can all find the time.

8-Time...mentioned at the end of #7 and something that is incredibly precious because so many people seem so pressed for it.  I am thankful that I have the time to think about the deeper meaning of things in life (even if Sherry and others sometimes wish I would focus on more basic things.)

9-Long conversations...so many of life's finer points just take time to sort through.  Long conversations with one other person or with a group who can focus and give their full attention to an issue are always gifts.

10-Naps...another thing that time can be used for is naps.  Recuperative.  Regenerative.  Resting.  Just time to let the body heal or catch up.  Naps are a very good thing.

11-Races...one thing that time can be used to measure is performance in races. I love races as they let me measure progress, performance, and my sense of value.  Of course, not all value is in my races.  There is value in my being a good husband, father, friend, family member, coworker, and manager.  And while time is not the only measure or even the most important measure for all the things from which I draw value, it is a sign of trying to measure up in all things in life. 

12-Sports...races are just one of many sports.  Sports are a key activity for one of my sons.  And a second has certainly tried his share.  They are such a nice way to learn so many of life's lessons about striving, focus, and accomplishment.

13-Teamwork...from sports I go to teamwork.  My sons who are either only a little into sports or not at all certainly have their share of teamwork activities (singing in choir and playing in orchestras or other music-based groups).  I have been lucky enough to be a part of many teams, too.

14-Music...I mentioned two sons' interests in music.  The third is interested as well, and it has been something that has brought my immediate family together (and extended family and friends together) in many ways over time.  My own musical ambitions and interests have always been sidetracked as it has never been the most important thing for me, but I do love to listen and play the best I can when I can.

15-Jazz...is a particular type of music that I enjoy listening too in person when played well.  I particularly enjoy one aspect of jazz--improvisation.  So much of life is about making things up as I go along no matter how much I might want to lead a planned life.  Just taking it all in has worked wonders for me.

16-Storytelling...some of this is reading to others, which I have done for all three boys and found it extremely rewarding.  Some of this is why music is so interesting as it can be used to tell a story either with or without lyrics.  And some of this is what makes my work life go--telling stories as illustrative anecdotes or telling stories to sell ideas.  All of it involves sharing ideas

17-Tattoos...to me, these are a form of storytelling.  One that I can work with an artist to express in a picture. And a story so precious to me that I want to take it with me forever.

18-The NCR trail...while I have mentioned running and randomness, this ties together running with good friends and long conversations and just wanting a sense of certainty about something in life rather than randomness.  I have joked with fellow runners that for very long races on the trail the best and worst thing about the trail is that you pretty much always know what is coming.  Very little (but some) slope.  Rather straight.  A place to go when I want to run but not think about running and just lose myself in thought.

19-The Y...while I am not always a fan of the treadmill, to have a place I can go to exercise when the weather is inclement, or a place I can go for non-running exercise, where I can bring the family, and where I feel like the person at the front desk knows me and cares about why I come is a pretty nice thing to have.

20-St. Pius X...I grew up in a parish where my main exposure was going to mass each week and to CCD.  I know my dad participated in the archdiocesan appeal and we had baseball sign-up there.  I didn't feel involved at any deeper level.  For 17+ years now, St. Pius has provided me and Sherry and our sons with a place to become involved in so many interesting ways to meet so many interesting people.

21-Bread...something I love to bake.  Kneading is therapeutic.  Fruit and vegetable breads have a wonderful flavor.  Biscuits are wonderful for working the butter or shortening in. And bread something that I would love to have represented in a second tattoo if I ever get one.

22-Wine...this goes back to family and friends and long conversations and bread.  Good food and good beverages do so much to enrich the ambiance and promote good conversation.

23-Cold...goes back to my running and should be clarified as cold but not too cold.  A moderately cold day with a clear blue sky at sunrise (perhaps over Druid Hill lake) is a great experience for running.  It helps to clear the mind as I don't have to worry about dehydration so much.

24-Teaching...goes along with storytelling.  But teaching has become more than just a career for me.  It has been something that I think about in terms of how to do it well in my leadership position.  It has become something that I focus an incredible amount of my energy on.  It even extends to St. Pius X as I have taught Sunday school for a decade.

25-Internet...it has brought me together with some very interesting people and made it so easy to get answers to questions to satisfy my curiosity that goes along with the storytelling and teaching.

26-Books...I love to read about ideas that people have found a way to string together in an extended format and to really explore ideas.  In addition to long conversations and telling stories of my own it is great to read what other people have thought and the ideas and themes they have explored.

27-Back on My Feet...while there are many aspects of running and I don't get to run with Back on My Feet as often as I would like any more, the number of stories and long conversations that came out of my participation in this organization is amazing.  Both resident and community members alike have amazing stories to tell.  And both symbolize hope.

28-Home...our house is not as big as we'd like.  Our house is not as neat as we'd like.  And our house has more issues than we'd like.  But it is the place we call home.  It is the place we come together to talk, to eat, to cook, to work, and to share.  And it is ours.  And it is home.  For me it is the home I have lived in longer than any other.  The only other place I really thought of as home was where I lived from 5th grade until I graduated from high school.  This home in Baltimore is the only home my boys have ever known.

29-Nature...to be out in it is just amazing.  And for me any question of whether there is a God was answered by seeing some of the sights of natural beauty.  While it is just a matter of faith my mind could not wrap itself around the idea that some of the natural wonders of the world arose completely at random.  Of course, other parts of nature may make me question the judgment of whatever God there may be, but nature is amazing.

30-Silence...this goes along with time, the NCR trail, running, St. Pius X, and many other items on my list.  Sometimes silence is all I need.  Silence to think. Silence to test how comfortable two people or a group are.  Silence just to experience the world as it is.  To watch.  To observe.  To take it in.  And to use what I learn in the silence to become better.

Reading through, I find that even my gratitudes are woven together to connect dots and tell a story.  I can't escape the desire to see things in a way that brings them together and closes a loop in my mind.  And those who read the whole thing will have a pretty good idea of what makes me tick.  

The Centers for Disease Control and Tattoos

So, yesterday, I posted about tattoos.  Focusing on one public radio program (The Take Away) and one segment of one morning program.  The blog entry wandered a bit but all came down to the interesting fact that the proportion of American adults with tattoos has noticeably increased (as documented by some data) and how I like to think of my own tattoos as "permanent vision boards".

I also commented that at least one family member was interested in why the Centers for Disease Control (or the CDC) had anything to say about tattoos.  I gave an answer in yesterday's blog but have since actually dug around a bit to find the reference that was cited in the radio spot.

What I found when I searched "CDC  tattoos 21 percent" was that there was a recent report in the publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.   The report was not particularly about the proportion of individuals with tattoos.  That was simply a number in the first paragraph of the report that was not an official CDC statistic but a citation to other work done by Harris polling.  The work was an online survey (which may or may not be representative of the population at large).  The work, while I'm sure high quality because polling businesses don't stay in business if they do shoddy work, may not be at the same level of technical sophistication and unbiasedness as most CDC work.  However, given that it is cited in a CDC publication in something written by the CDC suggests that they place a great deal of credibility on the data.  I actually am somewhat surprised that there does not appear to be a standard CDC survey (perhaps something like Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System--that looks at health behaviors that are associated with health risks on an annual basis) that asks about tattoos.

The main point of the MMWR article was to report on a number of cases of skin infections in four states.  The infections appear to be the results of the practice of manufacturing tattoo ink and not any practice used by the tattoo artists.  But that is why the CDC also recommends going to professional tattoo artists.  And, of course, consumers should do a little background work to find out as best they can whether the artists are using best practices in hygiene and best practices in available materials.

Some press, as with most things in the world, picked up the news from the CDC publication and sensationalized it.  An example said "New Secret Dangers of Tattoos: CDC Reports Mass Infections..."  Well, the dangers are not secret.  Tattoo artists require a waiver to be signed acknowledging risks.  And there are strict care instructions afterwards--also to minimize risk.  It is a big decision.  It is one that should be made with full information.  But the full information that is out there provides plenty of data already about what the risks are.  The CDC report sait it was difficult to determine the exact incidence of infection, but the count for the "Mass Infections" in the online title was...22!  Given the number of people with one or more tattoos and how quickly it is growing, I think that 22 infections is an importan figure to understand but not something to cause alarm as "mass infections."

Finally, for anyone interested, here is a link to report released by Harris Interactive in February of this year--not exactly new news.  There were some interesting statistics in the results.  According to the results the portion of the country with the lowest prevalence of tattoos is the south.  A higher proportion of women respondents have them than men.  A higher proportion of Democrats than Republicans.  The statistics (about who has them. what those who have them think, and what adults in general or people without tattoos think of those who do) go on and anyone interested can see for themselves.

I think that the one other statistic I'd like to comment on is that 25 percent of those who don't have tattoos think that those who do are less spiritual.  This is fascinating to me as for me it was such a spiritual decision.  And I realize that my own case is an anecdote and not representative data, but I know lots of people for whom there is a very deep spiritual meaning to what they have.  (And others for whom this is not true.)  But I don't really think that there is much reason to think of a different in spirituality, intelligence, health, or any number of other things that were perceived as being very different based on the study results.  Again, the study may not be a perfect representation of American opinion, but it points to some interesting trends and trends in perceptions that I suspect will go away over time.  

So Many Tattoos...

The public radio program "The Take Away" yesterday had a story entitled "America's Growing Love for Tattoos."  The Centers for Disease Control had released new data showing that the self-reported prevalence of tattoos among adults had risen from 16 perent in 2003 to 21 percent in the most recent data.  The program's speculation on why included the fact that there are more and more people who are visible to the public who have tattoos that are also visible to the public.  The had a tattoo artist who they interviewed--she provided some interesting insight although I think that my tatto artist, Emily Sloman (whose gallery is here), could have given a better interview.  They also spoke with someone who talked about people in Congress who have them.  I have not tried to figure out how many academics have them, but that might be an interesting idea to try to estimate.

One of my family members asked why would the CDC be interested?  Probably because tattoos were historically seen as a risk factor.  Perhaps a risk factor for infection--although if the tattoos are done right that risk is actually quite minimal.  Perhaps they were seen as associated with other behaviors--like things that "bikers" were historically associated with doing.  There may be some other reason.  I'm not sure what having a tattoo has ever been found to be associated with epidemiologically.  Earlier in my career I actually wrote a paper about tattoo removal (ironic given my relatively newly inked status now).

The discussion talked about how tattoos have become main stream.  Perhaps as our culture begins to see more than simple ear piercing and other forms of body changes as acceptable tattoos just come along with that.  I certainly have no problem with permanent body modification--which is what tattooing is after all.  And I won't be able to tell my kids, "Don't do that."

One of the hosts told a story about his tattoo.  He mentioned how he had thought of it as a silly thing for quite some time but that since the friend he got it with suffered an early death, it now serves as a permanent and daily reminder of his friend.  That is cool.  Every tattoo seems to have a story.

I am increasingly seeing mine as a permanent vision board.  I first heard about vision boards around a year and some ago when Metta Wellness had an afternoon to share vision boards.  I didn't participate but I considered it.  Vision boards are an interesting concept--taking a space and putting images of things that you love or that matter to you or that you aspire to.  Obviously, it's best if something fits in all three of those categories and then you can use it to pinpoint where you hope to go.  There are lots of things that a tattoo can be of.  My one (so far) tells a story of things that matter a lot.  If I ever get another I'll probably do the same.  I don't expect to use tattoos any other way, personally.

It makes me think of Pinterest.  Different people use the "pins" different amounts. I've simply used mine to organize a few things that are relevant to me.  Each person using each tool in life has their own way of using it and their own vision for it.

Probably if we asked 100 people with tattoos we'd get a wide variety of stories about why and what each meant.  It is just a form of self-expression.  It is a form that should be thought about seriously (as any form of self-expression) and should be considered thoughtfully before making a decision.  And it is one that is apparently becoming increasingly popular in the United States.  It will be interesting to see if that trend continues.