Blessed are the Crazy; 

A little punctuation mark is getting a big following; the semicolon. As part of the movement to break the silence about mental illness and end the stigma, Project Semicolon is a social media campaign worth sharing.

This brilliant faith based project has jumped off the small green and onto our bodies. Semicolon tattoos are popping up everywhere; I’m even thinking about getting one. But I struggle with whether or not I want to permanently etch into my skin what is already burned into my heart. 

I confess in my book that sometimes I try to forget about mental illness, seeking to escape it for awhile. If I had a semicolon tattooed on my body, how would I be able to pretend mental illness doesn’t exist? I know it’s delusional to consider, but like other hidden diseases, sometimes I want to pass for “normal,” meaning no drama and no craziness.

Yet the crazy in the blood, the mental illness in my family, is real. I feel as if I have semicolons running through my blood; the desire for me to survive mental illness and for all my loved ones to make it through this life as survivors. 

My whole body is a semicolon; my whole life. Do they make tattoos that big?

I’m headed to the Wild Goose Festival and I hear there’s a tattoo tent there; maybe a semicolon will jump on me…in a place I can’t see it.