Yesterday, on what was a very windy day in the Windy City, we took a field trip to the Damen L stop, where we found a familiar sign….

That’s right, hundreds of Wicker Park commuters are now reminded to Use Their Words! as they step off the train into the spring sunshine.  I’d like to think that we’re inspiring them to take a moment and look around, noticing colors and details they otherwise might have missed.  Imagine it: hundreds of commuters, tired and hot, suddenly standing a little straighter, breathing a little deeper, and rediscovering the poetry in the everyday.  They look at the strangers on the platform around them and start to wonder what each person’s story is.  Instead of tromping straight home with their eyes fixed to the concrete under their feet, they wander over to Myopic Books and leaf through some Neruda…

...they stop at the café for a latte and find themselves scribbling on a napkin… they wait for the bus and listen to the conversations humming around them, catching phrases ripe for storytelling… And then!  Hundreds of commuters head home to mess with the Magnetic Poetry they put on their refrigerators in 1999 and haven’t played with since… instead of turning on their TVs, they open word documents and type, hesitantly at first, and then more quickly as the stories they’ve been carrying around in their hearts come spilling forth in a sudden torrent. 

And then!!  They tell their friends… their mothers… their co-workers… and they pass the inspiration along, helping hundreds of OTHER people to pick up pens and open word documents, until the entire city of Chicago is alive with the power of the written word!  Can you imagine? 

And that’s just from one sign!  In fact, we have signs all over the city, and if you find one, you’ll get a gold star and extra credit for snapping a photo of yourself next to it and dropping us an email! 

One thing’s for certain… we’ve already inspired the Cottonelle people to use THEIR words!!