Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”

From San Francisco 2016

I am yearly in San Francisco to keep in touch with alumni in the area.  Though I have contact almost daily with them, still I'm usually walking by myself to enjoy the city. A single person more easily invites comments than if she/he were with someone. Too, people are more likely to risk contact with a person of a certain age. Such individuals aren't seen as threatening. To trade a smile with me is pretty safe. -- A young couple nurturing their first, a six-month-old “extrovert” the parents call him, say that having a baby also attracts comments from strangers. (Koochi, koo, for instance.)

My colleague Adam and I, coming back by cab to our quarters from our alumni gathering, find that the driver will not take any pay for this trip of four blocks. -- It seems a week in San Francisco does not go by without another sighting of Willie Brown; this time he's in Caffé Greco of a Sunday morn with a local TV anchorman. -- The barista at a coffee shop I had visited only a couple times calls me Don when I enter. Not being sure of her name I try a less familiar one, Esmeralda. She says, "Close, Isabel." In any case, she is memorable for her ever-ready and beautiful smile.

Another morning, sitting at the table near a woman asking directions in Spanish, I volunteer to see if I can help. As usual, after a sentence or two my next words are: "Mas despacio, por favor.” (Slower, please.) -- Taking the long way home, obviously not in a hurry, I am greeted by a gray-haired woman standing by the open door of a parked car (waiting for her husband who is getting a haircut). She says: "That's it; keep walking. It's the best thing. I wish I could get my husband to do it." I explain that part of it is that walking in the city is so absorbing. -- A few steps further a uniformed security man at a bank with an already huge smile on his face sees my harmless face and flashes a "Good morning." I respond, I think, pretty happy myself. We share our joy in the cool, refreshing air.

Another time, sitting next to a fellow, I discover we both have some background in philosophy, he at a Jesuit college in Texas and me in Minnesota. We both love reading, so I mention how much I enjoyed a recent book, The Existentialist Café; he's read it! Before leaving, he says he would like as another career to teach philosophy. Leaving after him, I ask for the check only to discover he has paid my bill. (More of this generous and surprise-filled San Francisco ethos!)

Saturday morning at a French café sitting on one side of me are two women speaking German; on the other a couple from Hawaii. She is originally from Japan, he from Philadelphia and is here to run tomorrow's big Marathon. -- The temporary loss of my cell phone provides a couple days of anxiety on my part and good work by an alumnus who possesses savvy and patience in solving technical problems. Bless him! -- Other bonuses result from this: as a bit of thanks I offer them dinner at a spot of their choice. As a result I am introduced to a variety of Chinese dumplings. And his wife, expecting their first child, wants to take me to the airport for my return to Minnesota.

I get in a conversation with an Uber driver from Thailand possessed of lively personality. Information about me confirms what I've been told about Uber clients: over three quarters of users are 34 and under. Finding that his passenger is well over the number he probes a little further and on hearing my real age, exclaims: "Oh my God!" On hearing me converse on my phone with a colleague not yet 40, he asks if he's my son. If I had one, this colleague would be a great choice for the position! -- Maybe such wonderment at the writer's age is a good place to close the last of these notes from San Francisco for 2016.

Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

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