A Phenomenology of the Modern, Poetic Vandal

This is an example of vandalism, a bathroom graffiti, that was written on the wall of my most used men's toilet when I was in university. Among all the bathroom grafittis I have read, this was my favorite.

Here I sit,
so lonely hearted.
Tried to shit,
but only farted.

It is not that I am advocating vandalism but I associated this particular bathroom graffiti as a humorously poetical attempt to self-expression by a vandal. Perhaps it was inspired by the author's difficulty in discharging digested food.

Years after graduation and the tuition having exponentially increased, my alma mater renovated most of the toilets in campus. When I returned after more than a decade, I was elated that the toilet didn't have the usual rank odor associated with it. Unfortunately, the bathroom graffitis were also painted over. The men's toilet was miraculously clean!

It then dawned upon me that an era had passed and that the emerging generation had found another medium to express themselves.

Man's unstoppable urge to express himself or to simply document his existence has been recorded throughout history. Pre-historic petroglyphs are a testament to this.

 Is this behavior somehow connected to our need to be affirmed by our fellow human and perhaps, the need to be affirmed transcends time?

The answer, I really don't know! To me, self-expression is simply self-affirmation. Whether the medium is considered legitimate or not, as in the case of bathroom grafittis, the act of expressing oneself is just an act of self-affirmation. Rather than slap myself, it is just a way of telling that I exist.

Which brings me back to the grafitti above. I was rather dismayed to find that the bathroom grafittis were painted over because I had added a phrase that gave me a profound sense to my existence.

It goes like this.

Here I sit,
so lonely hearted.
Tried to shit,
but only farted.

Me too. :(

If you were negatively or positively affected while reading this post,
please tag me. Filipino bachelor. Thanks!

The author is a management consultant for technical, vocational education and training (TVET). He started The Legally-Recycled Bachelor blog as part of product research on search engine optimization and search engine marketing. He is a Filipino bachelor with two children. His wonderful children reside in the USA with their mother.