The East Bay Express ran an interesting story last month about a Berkeley (or Oakland) man who leaves colorful Post-it notes—expressing various positive sentiments—all over town (on bikes, bus windows, cafe tables).

The man prefers to remain anonymous; the article calls him Mr. Postette. And he’s doing it for the best of reasons:

Mr. Postette said he started to leave inspirational notes mainly because he needed to be inspired. “At one point, I was feeling really unmotivated and uninspired to do anything at all, so I wrote a bunch of quotes down on Post-It Notes and put them up on my wall, in my room. I took those down, and started putting them around town.” He uses different color notes for different themes. “The past is usually green. Change is blue. Hope is yellow. A lot of them are yellow because I like yellow. Sometimes I’ll assign a secondary color. Pink is a secondary color for hope.”

From the Postette Facebook page–click to enlarge pic

I love the fact that his notes are color-coded and cleverly phrased. I particularly like: “I ruin everything—Expectation.” Or “I can’t stop—Time.”

The reporter asks about his motivations:

Although the notes absorb his attention, Mr. Postette said he doesn’t really know why he continues to do them. He doesn’t think of himself as an artist. “They’re a distraction for me,” he said. “It keeps me doing something good, as opposed to doing something else.”

Some of his friends and family have suggested that he try to make money off of the concept, but the idea doesn’t interest him. “I don’t think I want to make money off of it,” he said. “It’s good, anonymous, and money is — I just have this issue with money. I don’t like it. I feel like making money off of this would taint it in some way.”

Clearly, Mr. Postette’s mental health is improved by his project, as well as the mood of those he comes in contact with. We really need him in San Francisco!