It's The Process
There are some things that I believe exist even though I've never seen them with my own eyes. Baby pigeons, for instance. Last week, I saw my first actual graffiti artist/vandal in action. Frankly, I'd always envisioned the people who tag the vertical surface of Seattle as young males skulking about in during the wee hours, but this scofflaw was a woman who appeared to be closer to 40, brazenly going about her work at midday. She even had an assistant, a man with some gray in his beard who seemed to be responsible for keeping her cans of spray paint organized.
The wall they had chosen were not just any wall. It was a retaining wall built to prevent the land under the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation building from eroding away. This is what I'd call the back side of the property and not visible from the building itself. As I allowed my dog to sniff the shrubbery to her heart's content, I lingered to watch the artist at work, her nose right up against her illicit canvas, carefully filling in the outline of a bubble letter. I'd imagined that the people who did kind of thing must always be in a hurry, hoping to leave their mark, then escape without detection, but there was no urgency at all. In fact, as I CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: It's The Process
