“We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves.

I wish for all this to be marked on my body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography - to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned ... in our taste or experience.”

~Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

I wonder what kind of lives we would lead if every river, lover, and action were mapped upon our very skins. Would it teach us to live with more or less abandon? Would our lives finally be how we determine beauty?