莊周夢蝶

“I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?” -Zhuangzi

This is the tattoo I'm getting, except in Chinese it's only four characters, meaning Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly. I learned this story in Taoism class in college, and had the teacher design the tattoo for me then. He checked the translation for me, so I know it's right. It looks like, 莊周夢蝶.

The story has a lot of meaning to me. Am I living in the present, or in a dream world? I tend to dream a lot, and sometimes have trouble distinguishing reality from my fantasy world. I love to live in day dreams, except when they're nightmares, of course.

I suppose through this program of AA I'll learn to be more in the present. I'm not sure how that's going to manifest itself in the future.