2004-06-13

 
The best, and perhaps only, value judgment one can make on individuals is of demeanor. Draw the gentle folk to your floors and love them as they love the world. Every smile they exude to strangers is a gift to society and their work is perhaps the most valuable form of activism. Those that cuss, argue, interrupt, spit, grab, stare, steal, stomp, and mutilate possess a variant violence. To build a better world, we need to purify ourselves of all violence in the way that we must also stop using money because we so strongly dislike capitalism. Kindness is a more flexible gown, with sinews. Gentle persons can coast with the wind and always manage to find the ground when needed. This faith in friendliness need not be like Buddhism, not new-age strives for nothingness. It’s bold, it’s the only worthwhile bridge to the Straight World, and it reaches them more strongly than newspapers. “Oh that lovely creature smiled at me!” You don’t have to abandon any of your trailblazing handiwork of creativity. In fact, your art and your actions dressed up in demeanor may have new inflections, may better rub up against the wall. Destructive, violent imagery is a falsehood to building peace. There is no community in graffiti. But you will undoubtedly find: those that listen and smile and purport careful actions, considerate of neighbors, will have the most friends, most peers, most success.
posted by MM 7:32 PM