CRASH!!

I don’t think I will ever forget the sound of human bones against metal and glass of a speeding car. Recently I was walking down Market street to get some food for lunch when I heard rather than saw a car speeding down the street hit a pedestrian on foot with such force it shattered the windshield. The sound was sickening, the results horrifying. I ran over and it took all my experience, all my practice not to lose my lunch right there. As we build stronger materials and faster vehicles, the human body does not change to shield us any better. His wounds were extensive and as I tried to treat as best I could without any equipment I found myself displacing my emotions and entering into a professional state. Later at lunch with a friend, she inquired as to how I felt, I couldn’t honestly lie to her, and yet I felt very little afterwards. Maybe a little pride in being able to help, and sadness at a gentleman about to have a very bad start to his weekend, but that was it. Does one lose a little humanity when turned professional?

Along my journeys throughout the city this past weekend I stumbled across a metropolis of learning. A sanctuary of relief from the hectic pace of the outside world. In a city square filled with learned people filling the city hall, with talented artists in the performing art center stood on Larkin Street a silver building erected as a monolith to all who wish to enter. Yes I have re-discovered the library. What days there were when I browsed the aisles in the 900s of non-fiction back in my days in Milwaukee where the lives of great and not so great leaders were forever entombed. Further were the 340s where the science and technology section breathed such enticing titles as the origins of electricity or the secrets of DNA. Aisle after aisle of books with pictureless covers, just pages of information and history. How often do adventurers wander into the world of non-fiction when not on a school project? When was the last time we pick of a subject that we have no past history with? Armed with a brand new library card I left with a biography of Winston Churchill not as an international leader but a founder of domestic change, as well as the history of the Roman Empire in AD79 when 4 emperors ruled in the same year through assassinations, coups and all nature of political schemes. For the first time in years I spent the evening engulfed in the history of both ancient and modern times. It has been far too long since I have taken the time to learn something new. Even now I look forward to my next voyage to the palace on Larkin St.