Today, I was on a phone call with a friend as I was browsing a store. I came across a section with decorative letters for sale, arranged in six columns, and someone had decided to arrange some of them to spell two words: an infamous surname and a slur. Let’s say, as a prank.

I told my friend, and my first instinct was to take a picture of the letters and send it to him. I decided not to do it and just tell him what I saw: “someone has arranged the letters to spell the surname of that German dictator, and they’ve also spelt the n-word, with a hard R.” I rearranged the letters until they were gibberish and moved on with our conversation.

I did something similar recently when I saw a transphobic poster at a bus stop, disguised as a Women’s Day message. I had to resist the urge to take a picture of it, even if it was to react against it. Seeing stuff like this ruins parts of my day, and I shouldn’t feed the troll or pass its message. It might ruin someone else’s.

I’ll try to reinforce this habit. Today, I’m choosing to share something nice I photographed earlier: this ladybug that joined me while I was visiting an exhibition at the Photography Biennial.