Sometimes I go to the Gym with Will in the basement of the PD. It is only for PD and other City employees. Usually I go so I can get a run in that I wouldn't have been able to get in other wise because of the cold or rain or snow. I really don't like running treadmills, but usually say they are better than nothing. When I run this is my view, so for 30-45 minutes I stare ahead of me and at this badly painted wall, and this sign...
Seems like an nice enough little anecdotal sign right?
Wrong!
I hate this sign.
So much so that I have dedicated an entire blog post to it.
First of all, and probably the main beef I have with it is this awful awful font selection. Like it is some Irish blessing from a wedding or something! Why would the police in southern Illinois have any connection to the Irish, or blessings, or weddings!? Also this font is such a hot mess I don't even know where to start. Look at it for a minute and just study it....or try doing it for 35 minutes! Apparently you can just have upper case and lower case letters willy-nilly in Ireland. It starts out all well and good "the" looks fine but it goes down hill from there very quickly. For some unknown reason the designer didn't think to make lower case letters for R, W, L, B and maybe U? Also I don't know why they even bothered to make a lower case d because that thing is just a disaster. It reminds me of something from music class not the letter d! Also they did decide to properly punctuate the "you'LL" word but that was enough for one sign, no need to capitalize the beginning of it (no doubt that has more to do with the fact that there is no such thing as a upper case T in this anarchist Irish land) also no need for a comma after here, or a period at the end of the sentence
Also I get what they are trying to say in the meaning but honestly if you think about it it's kinda silly. (which to be fair pretty much all motivational signs in gym's anywhere are silly) Sweat has very little to do with ones over all health physically or mentally. Seriously so you are telling me that the more I sweat, no matter if I was sweating because I ran for 30 minutes, lifted weights for 30 minutes, or just sat and ate chips on a hot day in the sun, I'm now going to bleed less! So like how much less?? Like I want a number. For every minute I'm sweating exactly how much less blood will be coming out of me when I get shot!? Ok enough, I could go on but I feel I've made my point and been snarky enough for one day.
But wait I'm not done because my very astute twin pointed out to me that maybe its not so much the sign that bothers me, but the false sense of security they are trying to give me that just isn't true. Because at the end of the day no matter how much you workout and take care of yourself and sweat being a police man is a dangerous job and this sign isn't going to make Will or any other police man actually more safe every time they suit up and go out there and do their job in this crazy world. So there it is, there is the real truth, I hate the mentality of the world that police are bad, I hate this culture of violence, and no respect for authority, I hate that Police get shot and killed every day for doing their jobs. I hate that when Will is one hour late I don't know if it's because he's just doing paperwork in the office or he's unconscious bleeding out in a gutter somewhere.
To be clear I don't hate that Will is a police officer. In fact what does motivate me is his call to be a police officer. His calling to stand up to the violence, and hate, and the evil (or sometimes just plain stupidity) of this world and say enough, not today, not in my town, not on my watch. And if I have to sweat and maybe even end up bleeding a little to further that call so be it. That's what motivates me and that's what the sign should say.....just please not in an Irish blessing font.
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