Using Words to Make the World a Better Place

Last week and again yesterday, I had a very wonderful surprise at work. I used the washroom. Nothing too unusual in that, but as I closed the door to the stall, I saw a notice had been taped to the back of the door. An eight-and-a-half by eleven sheet of white paper, landscape orientation. Along the bottom two inches of the paper, there were words written vertically, with cuts made between the words so that the little tab could easily be torn off and taken away, like an ad on a grocery store bulletin board advertising puppies to give away or a motorcycle for sale and having the seller's phone number along the bottom on tear-off strips.


Only the sign in the washroom wasn't about puppies or motorcycles.

Three words were centred on the page:

You are beautiful.

Along the bottom, on the vertical "tabs": I am beautiful.

I noticed that several of the tabs had already been torn off and taken away, maybe popped into someone's wallet or stuck on a computer monitor (that's where I put mine).

I asked around. No one claimed responsibility for this bold social experiment and happy-making. No one knew or was telling who had posted the signs (every stall had one).

That little sign is still taped to the bottom of my computer monitor. I look at it. I like it.

Thank you to whoever used their words to make this world a better place.

(Should I get someone to check out the men's?)