TOEFLOP

If you live in Houston, there’s a 95% chance you’ve seen this graffiti art before: TOEFLOP. The tag is everywhere, painted in big bold letters, usually in highly visible and difficult-to-get-to places –like this one above I-45 near downtown Houston.

I’ve driven I-45 a fair amount and have been seeing this since 2020. According to some sources (for example), I-45 gets roughly 250,000 cars per day. Which means a quarter of a million people have been seeing this message everyday for the last 4 years.

Some quick napkin math:
250,000 cars per day * 7 days a week * 52 weeks a year * 4 years = 364,000,000 views 😮!

What Would You Replace It With?

TOEFLOP is cool and all, I dig the puffy letters and inventive word choice, but what does it mean? In my opinion, not much. It’s just a graffiti artist’s tag/signature. It doesn’t really benefit society.

So, my question to you is:
If you could swap out this graffiti with the wave of a magic wand, what would you replace it with and why?

I’ve been pondering this question for a while now, and I have a lot of ideas (with my own pushback commentary):

  • “You can do it!” (too cheesy)
  • ☪☮𝔼✡⚧☯✝, like the bumper sticker (too mainstream)
  • “God loves you” (not challenging enough)
  • A cross ✝ (too Christian)
  • “LOVE” (too hippie)
  • A peace sign ☮️ (too cliche)

I Would Replace It With…

Currently, my favorite replacement for TOEFLOP is this:
“YES, AND”

I think this message is valuable in our society for a two reasons:

1. “yes”

The “yes” part encourages us to agree with each other, to see things from other’s perspectives, to admit that they are right about something. This is especially difficult when it comes to religion and politics.

You may be thinking, “how can I agree “

Too often we make life a battle of us versus them, Christians against the world, judge, divide, label,

This is a stark contrast to the polarized world we live in today.

with our echo-chambers of social media and news fed to us by computer algorithms designed to label us and

2. “and”

The “and” part reminds us of the non-dualistic reality of life.

It also gives you space to represent your truth. And is also an invitation to challenge your own beliefs and accept truth from others.

TODO