WEIRD TIMES

San Fransisco, CA––I’m sitting smack in the middle of the steps of City Hall downtown. It’s Sunday and I’m in meditative mode. If it had been any other day it wouldn’t be possible. But on Sunday, church day, that’s the day to be here. It reminds me of mornings spent in Wilmington, NC. Where the day almost never got kick started without the proper reinforcements.

Yes, it’s Sunday, I remind myself, church day, in most places at least, and Fog City is no different. San Fransisco can use some prayers. The Mayor of San Fransisco surely may need a prayer ot two to win the gubernatorial race in California. The laying of hands, perhaps. If he actually believed in such a a thing. Which, one has to, in order for it to work. But I suspect he doesn’t.

Facing the wide open space a larger than life multi-armed deity cast in bronze centers the plaza. It looks as if it’s having a hard time keeping its balance. Behind the statue and dead center of the square is a building that reads T R U T H in mural size letters that look as though they’ve been directly typeset right on there.

It’s easy to forget where you are in as much as it is to remember that people are the same everywhere. Ditto for red double decker sightseeing tours. “Hop on, Hop off” is inscribed on the side of the bus. People need a place to go. Tourists need sites to see. The only trouble is people don’t know the place they want to go. Tourists don’t know which sights they want to see. Till someone else is there first. “Let’s go there,” they come wandering, what’s over here?

Uh, that would be the City Hall. But it doesn’t really matter what it is. What matters is competition. I don’t want it until someone else has it.

Has what? You ask. The scrouples, perhaps, to not pass on the chance to take such a grand spot up on these steps and look out into the city.

After getting to see with my own eyes the latest and the greatest of what this here great country of ours has to offer, let’s just say, I’ve seen things.

Yes, people are the same everywhere…