To assume that everyone is stupid and needs to meet you on your terms is a recipe for isolation. The greatest thinkers, ideas people, innovators and visionaries all need a simple bridge in place so that others might cross to where they are.

As time passes it becomes more pressingly real to me that I have things that are not mine. Not mine in the sense that they need to be passed on, forwarded to their rightful owners. In this I am mindful of the fact that we can never truly own anything. We are, at best, custodians, temporary guardians of something. So when I use the phrase ‘rightful owners’ I am referring to the human race at large and as a continuum and not an individual or individuals.

Recently the most significant Anglo Saxon treasure find of our time, hidden for more than a thousand years, was discovered in what was the ancient English kingdom of Mercia. How does a vast hoard of gold, silver and precious stones disappear without trace only to be stumbled upon some fifteen or so centuries later? The treasures of human development are no different. Exquisite pieces that have been hidden for centuries by well meaning guardians are being stumbled upon and exposed to partial light.

Partial in the sense that not all is seen, not all is understood and so the result is a degenerated benefit, half glimpses of half truths caked in mud and in need of a clean.

People dedicate their lives to different things. Some pursue money, others power, some pursue fame, others status and these are all valid excursions in their own right. Others pursue meaning, understanding and enlightenment. The very treasures of our existence await rediscovery by new generations and the knack is to be able to communicate with them.

Which brings me to Chicago, Illinois; a town where they love pizza, and where each restaurant has its own take on pizza, its own interpretation of that simple crust with a cheese and tomato topping. This is Gino’s East, just off Michigan Avenue and a revelation is about to occur to me. This is nothing to do with the suety, spongy base and the topping like a thick soup but everything to do with the patrons of the restaurant, who they are and what they represent.

The most important thing of all is to have something communicable, something that can be passed on. Otherwise it sits in splendid isolation like some priceless jewel in a case protected by an elaborate system of alarms and security. In order to communicate there has to be a common language, a lingua franca, a medium through which there can be an exchange.

I sit in Gino’s East, my lunch companion is on a business call and I look around. One of the distinguishing features of this restaurant is that it allows patrons to graffiti inside. There is layer upon layer of scrawled messages and I look at what’s there. The first thing is that they all say “I’m here – notice me”

They express love such as “Ben & Claire” or “Larry l’s Christina 4 life”

They refer to hometowns such as NJ, NY, Minnesota, “from Toronto”

They express strange symbols that I can’t represent here but drew in my notebook, a hybrid mix of semi Chinese hieroglyphs, pseudo Masonic symbols, eyes and a Superman badge.

They reference ideologies in symbol form, a Star of David, hammer and sickle, peace, hearts and a stylized flower and peace symbol combined.

There are sporting allegiances, “Go Reds”, “Packers”

There is the will to power, “X, Y or Z Rules” etc.

There are lots of dates

This gives me a clear portrait of

a) what they want to say
b) what they are compelled towards
c) what they use as a common framework of expression

any culture is understood through the trace that it leaves. A scout tracks their quarry through the spoor or footprint that it leaves. So with a culture it leaves a mark which says “we went this way”.

In understanding any given culture we assess its literature, its art, its technology and its social template. Here we have the mark that its young make. This is what they aspire to, this is what fills their hopes and dreams. They want acknowledgement, recognition. They want to love and be loved, they have a grasp on nascent ideologies such as ‘peace’ or ‘happiness’ but they are, as yet, unformed concepts that they have glimpsed in the mists of their evolving cognizance.

This is how to understand them – read their literature, read their ideas, they are telling anyone who will listen what motivates them and that is the key to understanding them: listen to them. This can be extended at another time but for now it is a step along the way.