The meaning behind the mark.

Walt’s Waltz’s mascot was the brainchild of John Laystrom, one of Walt’s close friends and coworkers. His work was an act of love and respect for Walt. This was his first attempt at a butterfly design. During the creation of Walt’s Waltz, I was in search of a symbol. I have always loved the butterfly, not only its beauty but also what it symbolizes. So, I began to sketch out a few poor attempts. Upon doing so, I realized that the butterfly’s wings looked to be designed in a way that 2 W’s could be seen, and so I decided that these 2 W’s would be used to represent our organization’s name, Walt’s Waltz. I took the symbolism one step further for the 2 W’s were also a symbol recognizing my sons’, Walt and Will’s, communion, their conviction, their brotherhood, and their love. It is a reminder that Walt is still with us. As Will reminded us, “Walt is a verb, he is an action. . . I am strong because Walt is part of me.”

As we examine our mascot, you can see the 2 W’s in the black wing attachments as well as the whimsical W’s outlining the wings. We see the rise and fall of the outer wings representing life’s ups and downs. One may also notice there are 3 such W’s which are reminders of the three beats in the Waltz. Further, we included the semicolon symbol. This internationally recognized symbol reminds those who may be contemplating suicide that their story goes on. The symbol encourages them to take a pause, a breath.

When creating our mascot, I immediately knew that color was to be a large component for it represents hope. Interestingly, John used his finger to paint the color on the wings and that of the entire design because his stylus was not working. This rainbow of various colors represents hope because often, rainbows appear after a storm. The rainbow has also been used in flags as an international symbol of peace, diversity, inclusion, equality, and pride. Notice, that on one of the antennas, you can see a heart. This heart represents the idea that love is a need, not a want in our lives. It is a quiet reminder too of our love for Walt, his mission to reduce suffering, and his vision to move humanity towards compassion and fair-mindedness through his gentle, humble examples.

After John created the prototype, he bought a new stylus and began to work on a clean version. Attempt after attempt failed to convey the emotion of his first, disheveled attempt. The finger scribbled colors that go outside the lines, the areas where colors are missing, the lopsided comma making up the bottom of the semicolon, the shaky lines that make up the black W’s, and the peaks and valleys that create the outer wings forming the 2 main W’s – the more we view this mascot, the depth and breadth behind this first attempt, the more it takes hold of each of us. The mascot’s meaning grew as we recognized that, yes, this first creation of Walt’s Waltz Mascot most clearly represents our purpose of highlighting mental health conditions. Mental health can be very messy and few have straight lines towards treatment. Mental health is also unique and can affect anyone no matter their ethnicity, their culture, their beliefs, their sexual orientation, their socioeconomic status, their religious views, etc. Yes, our fondness grew the longer we spent with our mascot. We each recognized a bit of ourselves and our unique struggles with anxiety and/or depression through gazing at our most beautiful mascot, our mascot which is Perfectly Imperfect.