Contrast
A fidgety Matt waited patiently to talk to the salesman at Tempus, an upscale Tampa watch shop. As an emerging young radiologist, he thought that he deserved the personal reward of the Omega he had admired from the window that he had passed several times on his way to Underground Ink, located toward the end of the mall. Matt usually wore long sleeves to cover the colorful embellishments on both of his arms, but this day he was heading home from work and thought that he would "out" himself about his artwork.
Matt was perceptive, and the air was dense with preconceptions, he could feel the tangible stares upon him as the salesman immediately addressed the person just behind and to the left of Matt with and enthusiastic "May I help you, sir? " The Brooks Brothers clad salesperson made the same assumptions that nearly two thirds of us do, classification of socioeconomic strata based solely on visual information. Innate and basal as it may seem, it's what we as humans do. We "size up" our brethren, affixing labels and classes at a level below and sometimes above us, based solely on perceptions. It protects us, makes us secure.
Matt subconsciously began to unfurl the protective covering of his sleeves as he left the Judiciary Bench, being sentenced without trial or evidentiary hearing, judged. There was no Tempus bag with an Omega watch swinging methodically from his tattooed left arm as he left for the safety of home.
Never did the salesman entertain the thought that perhaps this human being waiting before him was not the Pariah he assumed that he was, but indeed could actually be Brahmin in class and fully capable of buying an expensive watch. Sometimes the Coolie to which we snap our fingers at in condescention to summon a ride could actually be a Mandarin incognito. But it doesn't MATTER! People are not defined by what people DO! We are all art personified and on the same plane of intrinsic human worth.
The most important man where I live visits us every Friday, his time with us is brief but he is very welcome and respected by those who have the humanity to perceive his innate worth - he drives the trash truck. Life without him would literally stink.
Ink is an embellishment to color the life that is already replete with worth and radiance. Yes, ink does indeed "classify" us, it puts us on a wonderful plane of human expression, and with colorful plumage we soar above the grey, the monochrome, the mundane. Art escorts us into the sublime, it is subjective, open for broad interpretation and the judicial eye. Our skin is a canvas, and our lives without ink would be a gaping, cosmic yawn.
www.trinitywalkerkeefer.com
