Ain’t about how fast I get there/ Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side/ It’s the climb.”

-Miley Cyrus

Everyone needs a guiding hand. We don’t disagree with that. And that is probably why The Institute in Basic Life Principles, a Christian organization “dedicated to giving clear instruction on how to find success by following God’s principles found in scripture,” has erected this billboard. They didn’t even have to pay for it. The company that owns the space donated it to them. So we decided we shouldn’t have to pay for it either.

We’ve heard it said that that masturbation is the devil’s typewriter, and we thought we’d put that into practice, head out during the witching hours to write a new message for the early morning commuters in Little Rock, Arkansas. We all agree that it is necessary to find time and space to relax, and there is nothing like that post-O haze to calm the mind. We’ve also heard it said that the body is a temple. So there can’t be anything too wrong with polishing the altar from time to time.

There are many forms of spiritual ritual designed to settle the nerves. We’ve just always found it hard to climax while praying. Sometimes, that guiding hand knows better if it’s your own, not some phantom in the sky. Not to mention, all that bottled up energy goes somewhere. In a culture that celebrates violence, misogyny, individual achievement, we don’t understand why the sudden taboo on self-work, once that work becomes a little saucy. But if you can’t get permission from the priest, consider this a hall pass from us.

These are anxious times. Do what you gotta do, and do it proudly. You don’t have to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing. And self-love is so much more powerful than self-hate, no matter what the terminally repressed make of antiquated parables and contradictory scriptures.

Here’s to driving to work smiling.

With (Self) Love & Solidarity,
INDECLINE