I collect signs.
Not literally or anything. I just make a note when I come across a good one.
What is a good sign?
A good sign is like a thoughtful bathroom.
It’s filled with love. Written by someone with a caring heart.
A good sign is like a Very Personal Ad.
It speaks to the qualities behind the thing being asked for.
It goes to the essence of the request rather than the act of requesting.
A good sign is like a gwish.
It sends a wish into the air, without attachment to outcome.
Look at this sign!
I was at a cafe I like.
Guess what the sign on the counter said?
“Musicians! Bring in your own recorded music and get 10 free coffees. Help us stay 90% local music…”
That’s a sign that manages to be a Very Personal Ad and a loving request and a declaration of culture. Kind of like our Whee! the People!
It says this is who we are and how we like to be.
And it invites other people to join in and say YAY and be a part of this thing we’re doing, but without implying that our way is the only way or the best way.
Here’s another one I really like.
I stayed in a hotel that, like many hotels, left chocolates on the pillow.
Since I have been off sugar for eleven years now, this doesn’t usually leave an impression one way or the other.
But these chocolates came with a note. And a note is really a sign:
“May your time here be filled with sweetness and delight.”
It was a wish for me. A wish and an affirmation and a statement of what is important — to their way of thinking — about running a hotel.
That’s how signs should work.
Signs everywhere.
The most fun part about collecting signs is that you have regular reminders of how you want to live.
Sometimes when I look at a sign I just see the qualities in it and not the words.
SAFETY. REASSURANCE. ORDER.
Of course other times all I see in signs is the fear (“We don’t want to get sued!” or “We have to control everything all the time!”).
But even then underneath all that is a desire for things to be peaceful, if not really phrased in the best terms.
I collect all kinds of signs.
They help me run my business. They help me write Very Personal Ads. They help me think about how I want to present what I do, and what I want to wish for my people.
And comment zen for today!
What I would love:
Favorite signs that you have found. Or any signs you like!
Signs that you would wish for.
Signs that exist in your home, business, office, relationships etc that aren’t necessarily obviously signs.
And any other thinking out loud about why this is so important.
As always, we all have our stuff and we let other people have their stuff. We make room for each other, and we don’t tell anyone what to do.
Love to the commenter mice, the Beloved Lurkers and everyone who reads.
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I really like finding signs in Russian, because it’s like a secret code saying: Here we are, but only if you’re in on it.
Also, hand-made signs.
And I guess my current label-maker obsession is about signs. “This is where things go,” and “these things have a place to be,” and “I will remember because it is visibly written down.”
Or I could just be a labeling freak 🙂
My favorite was a sign in a bookstore in Arkansas: “JUNG is under DREAMS & above SEX.”
i look for different kinds of signs – signs that speak to me and tell me i’m on the right path – so i told you about the ‘Sovereign Builders’ one – and then the next week i was parked next to a truck that said ‘Sovereign Construction’!!
I need to think about this. I love loving signs. And I’m trying to think of the last “awwww, you really get me!” sign I saw. I love the one with the 90% local music. And culture, and kindness. Okay, I’m not being very coherent this morning, but I think I want to MAKE more loving signs! 😀
I have kept, for 10 years now, a Canadian numberplate, which my 12-year old cousin stole from my 15-year old cousin (who had found it along the road) to give to me as a goodbye gift after I spent one summer in Canada.
It meant a whole lot of things that were not so easy to catch in words, including ‘i wish you didn’t have to go’, and ‘we had fun together’.
this is really useful to me right now. I’m writing a kind of guide to my clients, and this is a reminder that what it really is about is What Is Important, and The Culture of My Business. Thank you for the reminder.
There’s a great dive bar in New Orleans. The clientele is mostly locals, diverse in age and economic strata, and anyone who walks in is welcome, as long as they play nice. Freaks are welcome. There is 1 toilet, and the sign on the door says “Bi-Sexual Bathroom.” I love that joke. It says ‘we’re all welcome here, you can be who you are, and we can all have fun with each other and not be too serious.’
There’s also a local artist who makes signs, that also usually end up in bars. They read “Be Nice or Leave.” The message is similar–everyone is welcome here, and we expect you to be welcoming of everyone in return. Nice.
I used to drive past a sign that said:
“Used books and cookies”
on my way home from college.
And one that said:
“Halo Adjustment Service” on the way to college.
I have a street sign (bought, not stolen) that says
“Conkling Avenue”
over the best nap couch in my place. And it wasn’t originally intentional (or I don’t remember it being so 😉
My favorite sign, which I saw in Hawaii half a lifetime ago, declared “Road closed due to volcanic eruption.” It wasn’t just the novelty of it that amused me, but rather what it signified: Get out and walk to see where fire and water meet.
A friend of mine used to collect agricultural equipment hazard stickers. Some of those were pretty awesome, and they always provided me with perspective on the hazards of my own work.
Havi — I’m going to a convention in about a month. My first time selling my art and comics (eep). I haven’t made up the signs yet, aside from my big banner. This was absolutely timely; I’ll definitely be trying to make my table signs friendly, helpful, and distinctive!
“Waiters crossing” – My favourite sign with a cute pictogram outside a café in New Zealand – the waiters had to cross a street outside of the café in order to serve people on the terrace right by the sea.
And travelling through China: the place is packed with hilarious signs in Chinglish.
And the sign on my physio’s door: “Have you smiled today?”.
*smiles to all of you*
My favourite cafe in the town where I live has one toilet in the ladies that hasn’t worked for years. This should be maddening. But (also for years) there has been a sign on the cubicle door:
“Bang out of order”
Acknowledgement of the issue and humour. It never fails to make me smile.
I have two pieces of art that could also be considered signs. One says “seek the journey”, the other says something along the lines of “i love places where i can be and cry and laugh and drink dr pepper and be and ..”
I think of cookie fortunes sort of as signs. Often I am prompted to take myself less seriously or re-examine an issue after reading a fortune. And since my gentleman friend and I regularly have Chinese cuisine for lunch with our volunteer conservation crew we have recently been getting some curiously related ones.
A recent example (at the same meal): mine read “Trust him, but still keep you eyes open”; while his read “Stop searching forever. Happiness is just next to you.” We didn’t share the contents with the group but we couldn’t stop laughing at lunch that day either. Every time we’d look at each other we’d just crack up.
A few years ago I needed to communicate something difficult and was in a tizzy about it until a cookie fortune came my way reading “Your heart will be known by your words.” It put the brakes on the whole spin because it helped me remember that the people knew me and if I wrote carefully and demonstrated great care in choosing my words they were going to get it in the best way possible.
Yep, I am definitely a believer that signs can be signs.
There are a lot of funny and message-delivered-without-being-mean signs about cellphone usage now. The local university library has signs on the doors between the stairwells. The cartoon guy is talking on his cellphone: “Can you hear me now??” and underneath it says YES WE CAN! PLEASE TAKE YOUR CELLPHONE CONVERSATIONS OUTSIDE! or something to that effect.
My own personal favorite sign is just a silly one. We saw this at a park with a river? drawbridge? or something. “DANGER — WARNING — WHEN HORN SOUNDS, LEAVE AREA.” Of course I put it in my music practice room. 🙂
Ohmygod! How could I have forgotten my *favorite* favorite sign that never fails to make me laugh?? It’s a small sticker that I found affixed to the base of the toilet in my apartment. “For commercial use only.” Bwahahahahahaha!!!!!! There are like seven different meanings you could get out of that, and they’re all funny!!
There’s this sign in one of my favourite dining places, which says (translated): “For lack of staff, we employ people here – handle with care”. To me it’s a (not -so-gentle) reminder that we’re all human, even while working anonymously.
“?????? ???’
from poem by ????????? ???? (I hope your browser can display Russian Cyrillic)
Or if you prefer Italian optimism:
“Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here”
by that obscure Italian gent Dante.
From World War II there is a British sign that goes:
“Keep Calm and Carry On”
Stoicly pithy, no?
My brother got my dad a poster with the Irish equivalent of the “keep calm and carry on” poster @aaron – “Keep going, sure it’s grand”. The company producing them has as its mission ” to sell 42 billion copies of this motivational poster worldwide and give one euro back to the state for every poster sold…thus halving our banking crisis debt.”
I commute long distances to work, and I am obsessed with people’s vanity plates (which are ridiculously cheap to have in Virginia, so many people have them). I scrutinize license plates for deeper meaning. I should find a way to record them, as they’re often fleeting, but they make me smile with glee when I “get” what I think they mean. I always try to catch a glimpse of the person in the car, to see if I can make an association between this human being and a message they put on their license plates. The presence of bumper stickers can deepen (or complicate) the vanity plate.
It’s interesting because, while many vanity plates are likely personal, a lot are designed to be read by others. Often, they’re pleasant suggestions, like SML MRE (smile more). Or, on the flip (haha) side, a middle finger: 4UHTRZ (for you haters).
On the way to one of my favourite beaches there is a Coca Cola sign which says: LIVE POSITIVELY. DRIVE SAFELY.
It was a sign for me the first time I saw it.
http://awesomeappenings.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-mushroom-soul.html
Three days a week, I work as a music therapist in a large nursing home. It’s a good gig in many ways, and just one of the things I like about it is the fact that I have an office to myself. Posted on the bulletin board in my office, at a height to be easily visible from outside the door, is a sign that says, “Think Privacy.”
Now, the overt purpose of this sign is to remind staff to be mindful of confidentiality, to protect privileged information concerning the residents and their families. That’s an important purpose, certainly. For me, though, the sign also serves an important covert purpose: it reassures me that I have a private office, a safe haven for Introvert Recovery Time, an Angel Refueling Station away from home. Much as I enjoy and appreciate the people I work with, I do need that private time and space, and the sign is an ever-present reminder that I can have this, and it’s okay — more than okay.
I recently stayed at a hotel which had printed on its notepads-by-the-phone: “Leave a trail of genius.”
My mom was visiting us here in Pittsburgh a few years back and came home with this gem from a city bus ride:
(posted above the back doors)
“Be Alert! Doors may suddenly open!”
When I visited London for the first time as an undergrad, we all got a kick out of the signs in the Underground that said, “WAY OUT”.
For most of us it was our first experience with international travel, and I think everything was feeling ‘way out’ so this sign had special significance at that moment.
A few years ago I needed to communicate something difficult and was in a tizzy about it until a cookie fortune came my way reading “Your heart will be known by your words.” It put the brakes on the whole spin because it helped me remember that the people knew me and if I wrote carefully and demonstrated great care in choosing my words they were going to get it in the best way possible.