Couple of years ago, I had some hand surgery, and the surgeon made these funny little zig zag cuts. Three of them. A student asked what they were, and out of NOWHERE my brain  replied that the cuts were from an initiation into a native American tribe, representing the mountains, the river, and the snake.

Where did this come from? Who knows? It just came out of my mouth. But it came from a teacher. And no one has these weird zig zag cuts. So they believed me.

Then I needed surgery on the other hand, but it was a different surgeon. I told him I wanted identical scars. He was like, ” I can make straight invisible scars.”

I’m like: ” I want matching zig zag scars. Really.”     We can only imagine what he thought.

So then I had two sets of matching zig zag scars. I could tell anyone anything.  The power went to my head.

There are innumerable people out there who believe I underwent ritual cicatrization ( cutting) to become a member of an unnamed tribe. For no other reason that they couldn’t come up with another explanation.

The problem arose when I had a student who desperately, desperately, wanted to join the tribe. I had to tell him he was  unworthy.