walk, march, parade, gather

I was surprised Sunday morning to leave my house at noon and discover a barricade on Folsom with a parade behind it. It was Carnival. This is the third time this year I've happened upon a parade in the Mission, each time left totally excited and also sort of miffed by my own cluelessness as a neighbor and white 20-year-old person. I thought I was better/smarter/more intentional than that? I've got some things to learn.

On Tuesday the Supreme Court of the state of California neglected to support gay marriage again and the city of San Francisco enacted a series of demonstrations. I didn't go, but Morgan and her friends went and I was excited to see their pictures of their historical marching.

I've been going on a lot of great walks around the city, slowly hitting up all of the SF vistas with Morgan and seeing the rise and fall of the lights over the drastic terrain of the the Pacific coastline. I like walking with people-- it invites that same sort of non-confrontational talking that driving does and that pleasant synchronization of footsteps. In high school someone told me that if you hug another human or animal for awhile that your heartbeats will match up.

This sort of synchronization, after all, is what parades and marches and rallies and walks are all about-- people coming together. And I think that that's just lovely. I found a job posting at City Lights last week left by an Englishwoman looking for someone with plant knowledge to take her on identification prowls. I took the card even though I'm don't fill the qualifications (that is, knowing the common or scientific names of any plants out here) because I loved the idea of walking with a stranger. Especially an Englishwoman-- it seemed straight out of a Jane Austen fantasy.