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We could translate this graffiti from Italian as “Devise a plan to escape from yourself.” However, it is difficult to interpret the last word. It could be a misspelling, something informal, or perhaps the signature of the writer. But for the sake of this reflection, I will take it as “da te” — from yourself.
Human beings are strange creatures. We build prisons around ourselves — and then decorate them. We settle into relationships that no longer nourish the heart, jobs that slowly crush the spirit, and identities shaped by the hands of society. Why? To shield ourselves from an unknown fear: the fear of freedom.
We suffer, yet we resist escape. The bars of our prisons are not iron but familiarity. Comfort. Predictability. The known may suffocate us, but it does not terrify us. And so we cling to the familiar, even when it dims our light.
True escape is not running from the world; it is breaking free from yourself — the self that has been moulded by fear, habit, and compromise.
To escape does not mean running away from responsibilities. It means understanding which responsibilities are real and which are borrowed from others. It means shedding everything that is not truly you. Escape is an art, and the master of it does not move from place to place — they move from illusion to truth.
Have you ever noticed? Trees shed their leaves. Rivers break through stones. Birds fly without baggage. Nature escapes constantly, unburdened, for it knows the secret: life is movement, and stillness is death when imposed by fear.
Your first escape must be inward.
Escape the conditioning that says, “You cannot.”
Escape the voice that whispers, “You must conform.”
Escape the thoughts that chain you to the ordinary.
Then devise your plan:
- Escape what numbs your senses.
- Escape what does not ignite joy in your being.
- Escape anything that keeps you small.
An escape is not a rejection of the world. It is the re-discovery of your infinite self. And when you escape the false, you are not left empty — you are left open. Open to existence, to the unknown, to life itself.