I'm convinced that San Francisco has to be one of the most interesting places in the universe. I'd been there a few times as a grom, but this weekend a few friends and I drove up there on our own and did what we wanted. That city changes you, opens your mind, makes you think in more complex ways. Its no wonder that San Francisco has historically been the epicenter of countless movements and changes, picking up speed within the city and spinning out of control into the rest of the world. When mankind gets out of this rut and steps into the future, I predict that the change will begin there, slowly boiling, spilling over, and exploding outwards across the globe.
The people in San Francisco amaze me. There is a vibe of underlying cooperation between all social classes, ethnicities, etc. I saw this manifested in several ways. When there is traffic on the freeways going into the city, people seem to drive cooperatively, doing what they can to get themselves and their fellow citizens to their destination. LA freeways are all about breaklights, lane changes, tailgating, getting there first. I saw very little of that up north. Of all the interactions between people, I saw very little rudeness, and lots of love. No one hassled us one bit, wherever we went, whatever we did. The people there seem truly proud of their city, and do what they can to make it run smoothly and positively.
On saturday my brilliant friend and I ate mushies and went to the exploratorium. It would take hours to articulate the relevations about the universe I found there, and even that would fail to deliver the messages I recieved. The exploratorium is a place where brilliant minds come up with devices that model human knowledge about science. Its devided up into sections: colors, sound, mechanics, biology, etc. I'll never forget one machine that my friend and I called 'the universe machine.' There are two knobs, controlling the frequency of a strobe light and a drum skin's rising and falling speed. Its difficult to explain how it works, but it is the best model of how a "4th dimension" would exist, that I have ever seen. It blew my mind. After the exploratorium closed, we exited into the fine arts center, around sunset, on the most beautiful day. I felt like einstein having 1000 orgasms at once I understood the city then, and fell in love. Our friend mal drove us up as high as she could go, and we saw the city in all its glory, at sunset. I saw the vibe, structure, spirit, represented as the knobs and buttons of the exploratorium machines. It opened doors in my mind that allowed me access to cognition styles I'd never used before. It felt as good as falling in love, in a completely different way. We got dropped off near the barking sea lions, and laughed our asses off at those anthropomorphic beasts. They look like fat drunk humans. We spent the last few hours of the trip running around in bliss, seeing all sorts of things. Again, it'd take too long to type everything out, but basically, the city changed my life.
Before my trip, I was starting to slide down the slippery path towards rejection of society. I was pissed off about the injustices in the world, and toyed with the idea of "dropping out" and living somewhere where I didn't have to deal with cities and cars and business people. When I thought of the future, I thought of oil depletion, death, destruction. I said I loved my country, but I didn't. SF gave me a new appreciation of the human race, of America's role in the world. I'm infinitely more optimistic in our ability to have a positive future, after having seen such harmony in a city. Sure, globalization has essentially enslaved large numbers of people, but at least we're organizing. Technology is moving so fast, in so many areas, all at once. If eveyrone would just tune in without dropping out, and put their creative efforts into making THE SYSTEM work, we could really save the world. This new optimism has changed my life, my taste, everthing. I've changed my first choice of law schools from University of San Diego to Hastings, located in San Francisco. I'm getting a tutoring job so I can buy 1500 dollars worth of electronic music equipment (drum machine, synthesizer, sequencer/sampler) because I want to be ready to participate in the music of the future. Instead of dreading the inevitable trajedy that the future will bring, I'm preparing and looking ahead to the amazing world we can grow into if we try. I never bought the phrase "the future is what you make of it" until san francisco gave me the gift of understanding.
I remember thinking this way as a grommet. I was into space and electronics and everything amazing that mankind had created. Then I got into skating, punk, and left-wing politics, and lost that spark. Now I have it back, thanks to san francisco, and its here to say.
-------------------- _______________________________________________________________ namaste said: no flamz in da ODD, if you got nothing to contribute then keep yo lips zipped _________________________________________________________________
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