I've loved you HOW long?

Note: This is a post I started writing a long time ago. I was going through all my incomplete posts and decided it was time to finish this one. Its going to be one of those posts that doesn't have an ending. And it isn't really about tattoos.

It all started with playful banter with MrM on whether I would get a tattoo. His feelings on tattoos range from neutral to negative, so he wasn't excited about a Dragon Tattoo on my back (I was just kidding about the dragon, but still). In conversations with other people, the question that comes up most often is what meaning the tattoo holds for the tattoo-ee.

It got me wondering - if you want to get a meaningful tattoo (and I'm not sure I even subscribe to that theory), what is meaningful enough to permanently mark on your body?

I haven't loved anything in my life for more than a decade. Except for the family I was born into, I haven't truly loved any person for more than a decade either. Of all the people - and I use the term loosely - I've added to my self-made family, at present Kuttu is the one who has been there the longest. 8 years.

It makes me wonder if it is different for others. If you've loved someone for 20 years, do you hold all relationships to that standard? Then, is someone considered loved only if you've loved them for 15 years or more? Is a hobby a passion only if you've done it for 10 years? Are all your close friends people you've known "forever"? Is there a huge barrier of entry for new people in your life? I know Seinfeld claimed the term "sponge worthy", so I'll coin "tattoo-worthy". What does it take for something to be tattoo-worthy?

Perhaps because my life has been quasi-nomadic in its first half, I find time to be a somewhat loose judge of caring. Be it a new hobby you are passionate about, a new friend, a new dog, whatever, it needn't have been in your life forever for you to love it deeply. Conversely, just because it has been around forever, it doesn't mean that you will love it more. And, sadly, if you lose a dream or hope after only a short while, it doesn't mean it will hurt any less.

It doesn't matter if I've only had a passion for 3 years or known a person for 2 years or harbored a dream for 1 year. You might look at that and ask me "You've loved that for HOW long?" (while you mean how short), but if I exclaim "I've loved that for HOW long?!", I almost always mean how long.

For want of a more definitive ending, I'll end this post with two pictures of the baby I love the mostest. Three and a half years. That long.

Ro the way I see him - full of sweetness and softness

Ro the way every child should be - silly and happy