I shared this photo and the caption below on instagram over the weekend and thought I would reshare it here in light of the terrible events in Paris and Beirut over the weekend. Everytime I pass under this bridge I’m captivated by this caption… the whole before and after aspect, the who, what, and why of the message(s). I’m not sure why I took a picture other than it felt significant, at the time I wasn’t thinking of any big picture metaphor. Coming across this picture again and writing my little IG post was a reminder that if something feels significant to you and you can’t figure out why, it’s a good idea to write it down or take a picture…sooner or later the meaning and significance will work its way out. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
XO
-M
Reign Rapid Misery Glory
I came across this photo I took a few weeks ago and almost forgot about. Seems appropriate to post today. When we lived in Cincinnati the first time I remember often driving under this graffiti tag that read, ‘Reign Rapid Misery.’ When we returned years later it was still there, except someone had now spray painted Glory over the word Misery, in pink no less. I love that someone took the initiative to do that and I wonder who they are and what were the circumstances that propelled them to act? Anyway, there will always be people willing to ‘Reign Rapid Misery’ but there will always be a way, and people willing to find a way, to change misery into Glory. Beauty for ashes. It’s the great alchemy of our existence. And there are always more glory spreaders than misery spreaders. Lets grab our pink spray paint and be glory spreaders today.
Love this.
Where is this in Cincy? I live here and always have, found this page by googling the phrase after many years of it sitting vacantly in my brain. I75?
It's on the Norwood Lateral just as you're about to get onto I75. The individual words, "Reign," "Rapid," and "Misery" can be found tagged in a lot of places over the city (as can quite a few "Reign/Rapid" combos), but as far as I know this is the only spot where all three appear in this specific lineup.
i am a graduating xavier student and i remember the day i was driving on the lateral when i looked up and noticed the change. when reading the words reign rapid glory, i immediately felt a weight lift off of my shoulders. i was so used to reading "reign rapid misery" and thinking to myself, "yep that's how i feel with the amount of homework, studying, and tests that i have to worry about right now." when i read "reign rapid glory" for the first time, i teared up, and everytime i have driven under the words since then, i have consistently thought to myself that i need a picture of the words. so, thank you for posting this picture. its so fitting that i found your post as im studying for my last finals ever! i was wondering, how did you take this picture? did you take it from your car or did you pull over and take it? id really like this picture!
i am a graduating xavier student and i remember the day i was driving on the lateral when i looked up and noticed the change. when reading the words reign rapid glory, i immediately felt a weight lift off of my shoulders. i was so used to reading "reign rapid misery" and thinking to myself, "yep that's how i feel with the amount of homework, studying, and tests that i have to worry about right now." when i read "reign rapid glory" for the first time, i teared up, and everytime i have driven under the words since then, i have consistently thought to myself that i need a picture of the words. so, thank you for posting this picture. its so fitting that i found your post as im studying for my last finals ever! i was wondering, how did you take this picture? did you take it from your car or did you pull over and take it? id really like this picture!
My friend is the one who changed it, Reign Rapid Misery is someone's song on youtube if I remember right, local artists. It sat there during the whole financial crisis of 2009 forward and my friend is the one that changed it last year. I asked him why and he said that he needed to feel better about reading it. I asked him why he used pink and he said that was the only color of spraypaint that he had on hand.
You ended this with, "Lets grab our pink spray paint and be glory spreaders today." As the Glory writer, I ask you, have you done it?
Well hello Glory Spreader. I never anticipated actually finding out who painted over misery with glory and it's really cool to have that little connection.
In answer to your question, I try to be a glory spreader on this here very blog. As as special needs family I spread awareness of the broader disabled community by featuring a person with disabilities on my blog each week. I interview them (usually the parents) and ask about their special needs journey, what they've learned and what they'd like other people to know about their loved ones or themselves. It's a small thing, but I've been doing it for several years now and have had some wonderful things come of it–mostly people's hearts and minds being challenged and changed (myself included) about what we think it means to be disabled.
Thanks for the inspiration and hopefully you're still on a mission to spread glory–literally or figuratively–wherever you go. XO