Remember the “If you're one of us, you'll take a bite” clip from Seinfeld?
From time to time we’ve all felt like George, like outsiders... You might even think of yourself as an outsider and maybe you are an outsider and if you are that’s okay.
Today, I woke up in a very counterculture mood that made me reminisce on my relationship with graffiti.
Writing graffiti was my first foray into the underground and I loved writing because of its anonymity, its artistry, and because I didn’t have to be part of the group.
Maintaining the right balance between being an individual and being part of a group is harder than trimming your sideburns, because what happens on one side affects the other. Trim too much and you lose your individuality, trim too little and run the risk of being an outcast. When I wrote graffiti I could do me and not have to worry about anything except other writers and cops, of course.
These days we’re pulled in many different social, political, and ideological directions and if you’re not careful it’s not only easy to lose yourself, it’s likely, and it is up to you to maintain your own sovereignty or become another corporate lemming in the rat race.
If you’re a weirdo and you’re not hurting anyone but then you change who you are just to fit in with some group then who are you? You’re a lot worse than just a weirdo, you’re not even a poser, you’re a sheep.
Don’t be a sheep. Be you. Do you. Be your own group.
This post was dedicated to a man who struggled and finally found peace in the end.
I just found out you were gone. Rest in peace Rufus Hannah.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufus_Hannah
Peace,
-T