For the most part I do not think I would turn to the words of a payphone graffiti artist for spiritual or motivational advice. But if I did I would question the integrity of this pronouncement seen on an abandoned clamshell payphone enclosure on Crescent Street in Astoria: FREEDOM IS INFINITE FAITH IN YOUR ABILITIES. Um, what?
How does it make sense that faith in my ability to, for example, play poker and win big at a casino is a path to freedom. I am an average poker player, so if I arbitrarily decide to grant myself “INFINITE FAITH” in my abilities to master that game where would it really lead me? Probably to the poor house. And freedom from what, by the way? Freedom from the tyranny of indecision at the expense of ignorantly-informed choices?
Faith is not a synonym for competence. I cannot juggle but if I have faith that I can will sixteen bouncy balls magically start rotating through my hands? I tried learning to ride a skateboard a few months ago and can assure you that no amount of faith would have made it any easier for me to get anywhere with that challenge without the necessary work. Faith is something you assign to religion or metaphysical phenomena, not the hardscrabble work of mastering a craft.
As a trained classical pianist I have every confidence in my abilities to perform well in that realm. Faith might enter into the discussion if a scheduled performance of a particularly challenging piece of repertoire is afoot and rehearsals had not gone well. But if all I had going for me as a pianist was faith in my abilities I would probably be a hack. Any faith I might have in my abilities to pick up a violin and play some Paganini would lead not to freedom but failure.
So, sorry Charlie, or whoever etched this attempt at uplift onto an abandoned payphone. This little attempt at philosophical flourish is a fail. The conspicuous use of quotation marks around symbols meaning “Infinite Love” also make zero sense.
Yeah, this story is kinda dumb but I’ll post it anyway, to reflect the quality of the graf that inspired it.