An Illustration

For two months I have grown obsessed over an illustration I saw graffitied on a wall in Thessaloniki. When I first saw it I was sure to get a photograph, and after a mental consent to it’s meaning I moved on with my thoughts as I did with my travels. From Greece, where I spent almost three months of my summer, I went to Istanbul and other parts of western Turkey, London, and then back home to California just in time for fall semester of school. Arriving at home I immediately started working two jobs and began another semester in college; I found myself again in the busy routine that I was originally seeking to escape through traveling. Before, when I first saw the graffiti of a man in business attire carrying a briefcase, wearily hunched over and in need of being re-wound, the people that this illustration represented were all back home. They were still caught up in the endless routine that I had finally escaped. At the time I did not realized that my escape would only be temporary, and that my hard-earned savings would eventually be spent and my summer of freedom would be over. Now, after picking up again the routine of a fast paced and overly productive American, I realize that the illustration is of me. I am forced to ask myself, 

IS THIS REALLY LIVING? 

Since this realization, I have been reflecting and struggling over the illustration and the questions that come with it. At work I have been drawing it on coffee cups and cocktail napkins so that customers might ask the same question of themselves. Certainly this is not just a question to be asked only of myself, but it should be asked of society in general. I have been getting responses from people all around. At the restaurant, another uniformed employee looked at it and said, “Is that supposed to be you, cause they don’t give us hats here?” Another asked, “Is he hung on a noose?” and then realized that no, “he’s all wound up.” People seem to get it; they nod their head, but then remain unbothered. One guy at work, who had apparently taken a philosophy course, said, “Yea, this might be living, but it’s not existing.” Most people work not only to live but to live well, and they want to always enjoy an upgraded lifestyle that is far more than what is essential; dining out often, dressing in fashionable and expensive clothing, driving the latest and greatest vehicles, and nicely furnishing the house so that it looks up to date. All of these things are influenced by the trends of society, and as an individual we learn that all we have to do is make enough money so that we can keep up with the trends. The individual is lost in the masses. Like the man in the illustration, this person is wound up by society, embedded with a capitalistic mindset and corporate enthusiasms, and then runs until his energy is gone. Our whole lives are spent working our way towards success, and we don’t realize we are working ourselves to death. So what is it then to actually exist? This is a question only you, as an individual, can answer for yourself, and I hope for this illustration to bother you as much as it bothers me, and for us both to eventually choose to do something about it.