Let Them Stare

A man with a three line tattoo on his forehead: Do it messy.Do it scared.Do it unprepared. He walked into every room already apologizing with his face, which is to say he walked in honest. The tattoo wasn’t a manifesto. It was a scar that learned to spell. Something that happened to him so many times it finally came out the other side as instruction. Do it messy. Which means: the version you’re waiting for isn’t coming. The clean version, the ready version, the version where your hands don’t shake — that’s a story you’re telling yourself to stay still. Mess is what motion looks like up close. Do it scared. Which means: fear is not the opposite of go. Fear is the body reporting that something matters. You want to do the thing that doesn’t scare you? Fine. But don’t call it courage. Do it unprepared. This is the hardest one. We have made a religion of readiness. Another course. Another credential. Another year. He had the word unprepared on his forehead like a door he’d already walked…