Intention

It's surprising what two pieces of blue tape and a Sharpie can teach you.

The signs in the washroom can tell you a lot about a restaurant.

Here’s one from Rapscallion in Hamilton, Ontario:

Source: Facebook user Kim Smiley Wiley

One from the Drake Devonshire in Wellington, Ontario:

Source: My own phone. I took this one.

This one isn’t a washroom sign and I didn’t take a picture of it, but I did write it down. It’s from Public in Kitchener, Ontario:

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

**

I was at another restaurant (Willibald in Ayr, Ontario) recently and the topic of conversation at our table was centered around the word intention.

I left the conversation briefly to go to the washroom and ended up taking two pictures while there.

Here’s one:

Source: I took this one too.

and here’s the other:

Source: This is one I took too.

Let’s break these down.

With the first image, the fact that it’s laminated and branded leads me to believe that this sign was posted in every washroom at the restaurant (I did not verify this, but I believe it’s a decent guess).

The last sentence on that sign tells me a lot. It was typed with intention. “We’re on a septic :(," is almost like a short story, isn’t it? To me it’s saying, “Hey, we’re out here on a farm doing our best. We may not have the most modern amenities, and we’re hoping that you can empathize with our plight.” It’s the emoticon at the end that really does it for me. Someone chose the sad face.

The second image shows a sign that I am almost certain only applied to the particular washroom that I chose (again, I didn’t verify). It’s the lack of lamination and branding, and the presence of two lines of blue tape that gave it away.

Again, so much intention here. My favourite word choices here are tricky and jiggle. Also, the placement of the sign itself is exactly where it would be most useful—I know, from experience.

Both of these signs clearly hold a lot of intention.

And yet, do they feel different to you?

For instance, does one feel more real than the other? More vulnerable?

We can do a lot of things with a similar level of intention, and yet the impact of our actions can be felt very differently.

There’s something about the hand-written sign on the blue masking tape that I loved.

In fact, I preferred it to the laminated and branded one (Yes, I understand they were communicating different things).

The sign reminded me of a line from The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (Pg. 281):

Sometimes the mistakes are what makes a work great. Humanity breathes in mistakes.

My own note next to this line is: Mistakes are a point of universal connection.

The blue sign doesn’t necessarily have a mistake, but it contained a higher likelihood of one. When you choose to write something by hand, you leave behind the comfort of autocorrect. You are choosing to inject vulnerability into your words, regardless of what those words say.

In our quest to do things with more intention, we must choose to bring vulnerability along for the ride.

It will make our pursuit feel more human.