We have a phrase in graffiti that goes “Don’t burn the spot”. It’s one of the unwritten rules of the game. In general it’s meant to keep people from fucking up things for other people.
A lot of yards are out of the public eye allowing writers to spend time on more artistic versions of graffiti; these aren’t usually legal, but they’re out of sight, so more time can be spent. Some of the best graffiti is created in these places.
When you’re leaving a spot like this, if you catch a bunch of tags near the entrance and all over the surrounding area, it will draw unwanted attention and essentially ruin it for everyone else. The same can be applied to other things like shops that sell graffiti supplies, galleries that showcase graffiti art, etc.
I was thinking about this concept outside of graffiti and realized it can be applied to all aspects of life. It’s about raising your standards. What if you started looking at your actions like they ALL mattered. Little things that we may not think about.
One that I learned and never thought about was when I went to my first Arete Syndicate summit. We visited the 1st Phorm headquarters. If you’re looking for an example of incredibly high standards, it would be hard to find a better one than this place.
They told us we were expected to live by these standards when visiting. This included wiping the water droplets off the sink and counter when we were done washing out hands. I’ve honestly never thought of doing that, but now I do it every time.
I have a long way to go, but I’m chipping away at things that I used to look at like they don’t matter. If we start looking at everything like it matters, maybe the combination of all these little things getting taken care of can make the world better than it is.