Karmic Graffitti

I got back on Saturday from visiting my mom last week. She was still a bit upset in the beginning of the week, but having one of her children home for a week seemed to help. We went out several times during the week, including the mall, our favorite Chinese buffet restaurant, and our favorite pizza place that we'd been going to for over twenty years. I went with her to her radiation treatments at the hospital. Everyone there was really nice and I know they're taking good care of her. She only has about three weeks to go, and I think once her radiation treatments are over she'll feel like she can get on with things, like selling her house and moving up here to be with her children.



This is a section of sidewalk in Salem. The graffitti reads "Be Happy Please," which is an odd thing for a person to write in wet cement. Usually you see things like "NG Was Here" or "NG ♥ DW." I've never seen a request in wet cement before. The word "please" makes it particularly poignant, as if it is a plea and not merely a "Don't Worry Be Happy" brand of optimistic sentiment. I first saw this seven years ago on my first visit to Salem as a tourist. I was in a major funk at the time, and even though I was thoroughly enjoying my vacation, I found myself sitting at a sidewalk cafe with a cup of coffee and crying for no reason. A few minutes later I walked along this sidewalk and found this message in cement. I had a friend in college who was really into psychic phenomena, and she believed that if she saw something like a motto on a billboard, or on the side of a truck, for example, and it was relevant to her situation, she took it as a sign. I couldn't help feeling that this message in cement was a sign to me. Being that I was in what is arguably the psychic capital of America made it seem even more significant. This message is still there, seven years later. When I first saw it, I would never have imagined that someday I'd be living in Salem. But here I am. My funk is long gone now, but this graffitti in cement still serves as a message of hope every time I walk past it.