Graffiti and Karma

As I mentioned in my last post, I visited the local skatepark recently. Since I found some more graffiti near my apartment complex, I wanted to see if the same artist was also tagging the skatepark. There were about four kids at the park (around 9am on a weekday), and as I wondered around and took pictures of graffiti, three of them left. And then I ran into this really nice kid:

I asked him how I could access the fence-enclosed space next to the park (which was full of sunflowers), and he said there wasn’t an opening. Then he asked me if I was taking pictures of all the “destruction.”

And I said the graffiti wasn’t really destruction — I mean, no one took a jackhammer to the place. He said that’s true. And I said not all graffiti was ugly. He said that’s true. I told him I thought graffiti was a crime (and he agreed it was), and if someone was going to break the law to communicate a message, I would like to understand what it says.

But I didn’t understand all this graffiti. Most of it seemed to just be about ego — signing your name, like a dog, marking your territory. And he chuckled at that, and said some of it was. He went on to say that the people who did it weren’t really bad people. Really. They were just expressing themselves. So I asked him what this one meant:

He shrugged his shoulders, laughed, and said he didn’t know.

I talked him into doing some jumps for me, so I could practice my people shots. I suppose I prefer taking photos of flowers and trees — even if it’s windy, it’s a lot easier than taking pictures of moving people.

I tried not to take advantage of how nice the kid was being to an old, disabled lady, and after a handful of shots, I said thanks. I told him if I had some money on me, I’d give him a few bucks for being so nice to me.

He said that wasn’t necessary, karma would take care of it. And I agreed that karma was a good thing. Then I asked if I could take this picture:

I think I’ve found the next Tom Cruise. 🙂  (That white thing in his mouth are his headphones.)

(Photos taken 9/10/2015.)