When Michael Donnoe puts up magnets with compassionate statements around downtown Sacramento, he intends to have them ripped down, plagiarized, and re-posted elsewhere.

Having moved to the downtown area around March 2008, Donnoe was struck by election paraphernalia floating around the city, as well as graffiti. "Election signs easily make people polarized," he said.

He thought, "How about instead of having an election sign, somebody put something up about respect and kindness."

These attempts to disseminate notions of compassion and thoughtfulness pushed him to create the Compassion Project.

"It's best described as an art and activism project that is designed to cultivate the causes and conditions of compassion and altruism for all who encounter it," Donnoe said.

His inspiration stems from his upbringing. "It was of utmost importance that we treat others with compassion and our primary motivation in life is altruistic," he said.

About 15 years ago, he came across the teachings of Buddhism and found they resonated with his family values. "Everything I grew up believing, it said," he said.

Donnoe writes all of the statements on the magnets himself and tries to capture the attention of passers-by. "It's easy to get preachy on these, but they aren't religious in any way," he said.

The magnets start off with scenarios prompting the reader to "imagine" or "dream" themselves in a particular situation where compassion is needed.

Donnoe found magnets to be a simple way to convey these messages. "I don’t have printing skills and magnets are good because they stick to lots of things," he said.

He typically posts on mailboxes, newspaper boxes, utility boxes and will even leave them on tables and booths in the downtown area.

Donnoe also tries to superimpose his magnetic messages on graffiti vandalism. "I don’t particularly feel safe with graffiti and I assume other people don’t, so I usually try to cover it up if it's written on something magnetic," he said.

"I am limited in where I can post, but I’ve actually started using that to my advantage," Donnoe said.

His limitations allow him to be creative, putting magnets in empty "Take One Please" boxes and sending them off with traveling friends.

"They've gone as far as Davis, Boston, San Francisco and a couple in India," Donnoe said.

The feedback he receives on his magnets has been positive. "My friends are really, really thrilled that the magnets disappear. It's a really good thing."

In the future, Donnoe hopes to write the web address for his new website on the back of magnets and have people register where they found them and any words of wisdom they may have.

He also plans to translate them into Spanish and put them up in Spanish speaking areas.

With the advice of a friend, Donnoe obtained a Creative Commons License for his magnets. "Anybody can use it, copy it, post it around," he said. "I may be the person that starts it, but I hope everyone who encounters it will help it grow."

If you come across these magnets, take a second to read it, pick it up, move it around and spread the compassion.

For more information, click the following link:
The Compassion Project

Photo credit: Michael Donnoe