Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, April 4, 2026
Last Sunday on a walk I discovered, to my delight, a sidewalk chalk challenge, in which the juvenile artist tried to goad friends and passersby into a series of hopping challenges. Though the chalkmarks were emphatic, the drawing and the spelling were a bit sketchy, and I sometimes found it hard to figure out. But I’ll give it a try.
As near as I can figure, the above photo shows us where the course begins. The three shaded-in circles seem to be color-coded ways for three participants to keep straight who they are as they hop along. The “asome!” (which I take to be a variant of “awesome!”) offers encouragement right at the start. What “Lava!” signifies I have no clue.
Here, another injection of encouragement is provided with a hearty “good”, after which the color-coded participants must take their positions again, and puzzle over the next command: “Get the cons.” Thus far I had detected no signal that the players were to capture criminals, so I decided that the speller had meant “get the coins,” since there followed a series of gold-chalked circles (one of which you can see at the top) with dollar signs in them. Hop along, land on a coin, and you’re that much richer.
At this point, if I have these in the right order, the participants are heartened by another shot of encouragement (“good job”), after which they resume their positions and respond to the simple command “run.” Helpful triangular shoe-tread designs let them know where to place their feet.
At last, we seem to have come to the end of the challenge course. The artist – choosing again not to be trammeled by basic spelling rules – declares not only the “fenesh” but pats the participants verbally on the back with “vare god!”
And here’s a view back along the course. I’m not sure what the final cryptic symbols are:
Cute, right? Tragically, a steady rain fell the following day, and when I sought to re-examine the challenge course it had been washed away. But what stuck with me was encouragement. Whoever had set this course out was someone who believed that positive affirmations were helpful.
The Bible has quite a bit to say, and demonstrate, about how encouragement makes all the difference. Check out this link: