Three-Headed Snakes and Other Good Goals

I’m starting to narrow down the tattoo I want on my right arm (not that this is particularly relevant since the big money for case management won’t start rolling in for a while). At the top of my short list is a three headed snake. I think it will complement the dragon nicely. The three heads are of course symbolic, in this case they are symbolic of my three main goals in life; these are very broad goals, many things could fit under each category.

My first goal is to love. I want to love God with all my heart, mind, and soul. I find this daunting, and I challenge anyone who doesn’t. “Heart, mind, and soul” is basically symbolic, representing the whole of one’s being. No compartmentalizing, only holistic, unhindered love. I don’t do it, but this is my goal.

I want to love my family. Despite my many foibles and failings, I really, truly, really want to be a better father and a better husband every day. I want to love them more deeply every day. I want to submit and support, lead and guide, follow and encourage.

I want to love my friends. I want to be a support, I want to build up, I want to cheer on. I want to know and be known in a personal, transparent way that opens me up and opens them up to compliments and critique, accolades and accountability.

I want to love others. I want to show compassion, empathy, and aid to those who need it. I want to be a safe place for people in a dangerous world. I want to figure out what it means to be incarnational.

I want to love my enemies. I want to not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (this is a hard one for me, I’m pretty vengeful). I want them to be so surprised, so taken aback, so shocked by my love in the face of their, well, enemyness, that the seeds of revolution will be planted in their heart.

My first goal is love. My second goal is life. There is so much to see, so much to do, so much to experience. There are so many blessings to give and receive and I don’t want to miss it. I don’t want to look back on anything with regret, I don’t want to wish I had been brave or bold. This is difficult for me as I am pretty much always shy and sometimes cowardly. I am frustrated by the human tendency to get stuck doing things a certain way because they have always been done that way or to think that something can’t be done simply because it has never been done before. When St. Peter meets me at the pearly gates and introduces me to my first angel, and that angel asks me, “So, what is life like?” I want to have a good answer.

My first goal is love, my second is life. My third goal is to leave a legacy. Our lives are but mist, or the equivalent of the blink of an eye in all of time. We will not be around very long and we will not be remembered. Almost everything we do, even the most powerful and influential of us, fades away into meaninglessness and is without consequence. Almost. Some people live their whole lives like this and simply don’t care and it drives me insane. I want to leave a legacy; I want the time allotted to me to result in more than consumed resources and over-populating offspring. I want said offspring to know me, to now their history through me. I want lives and subsequent generations to be different because I was involved. I want to help people heal and be transformed now and after I meet that angel. Lofty and perhaps a little arrogant? Yeah, probably, but also doable.

So that is what the three heads on my three-headed snake are going to mean, and hopefully that is what my life will mean. I’m not sure where the tattoo itself fits into the grand scheme of these goals, but it fits somewhere.