Life in the Bush with Ghosts

Like the imagery of the previous post, I find myself moving through the day with glimpses of ordinary things that carry water-logged baggage from The Crescent City.

Walking up the hill of California Street to Grace Cathedral... I pass a gate (actually two matching gates) on an apratment building. At the center of the gate, arranged in a large crescent are two dozen fleur de lis.

As I leave the church, a church I have attended on and off for nearly 30 years, I notice for the first time the ironwork fencing along Jones Street... Again... fleur de lis.

I drop to the bottom of California Street to catch a ferry boat across to Larkspur and back up to Petaluma... It's one of those very rare and very perfect days on the bay. I can stand outside on the front deck of the boat in my shirtsleeves and not freeze my ass off. There are dozens of beautiful sail boats, loaded with beautiful people, on a placid and lovely bay. Somewhere just past Angel Island, with the Golden Gate Bridge still visible in the gap betwen the island and Tiburon, I suddenly have an image of the dark waters and bodies rising up from below.

I pass the strange facade of San Quentin as it stands on the incredibly valuable real estate of eastern Marin County and I think of the large population of African Americans in that prison and the large population of African Americans left to suck it up and suffer in that prison of the Superdome.

I get off the boat and walk across to Marin Brewing Company for that wonderful combination of lunch, beer and WiFi. On bright sunny Sundays like this, they also have music, but the keyboard player is taking a break and Mac's voice is pumping from the speakers.

I go inside to get online and to order a cask conditioned Porter, the TV is showing the Broncos and the Chargers... all I want to know is what are the Saints doing?

Ghosts... filling unexpected and surprising moments. I saw a preview for some new network show about the paranormal the other day. The line that stuck with me was, "Houses aren't haunted... People are."