Category: LifeinSF
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Localist Milkshake
OK. OK. OK. I know – what we think of as hot here in SF is not hot anywhere else. But it was 22C today. The fact that it’s 20 (that’s 68F…) at 7PM is just hot for July. We can sometimes expect mid 60s here, but only in the midday. I’ve seen it hit…
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For the Beauty
THE LAST Weekend was #SpringinSF at it’s finest: not too hot, yet warm and sunny with a slight breeze. It was warm enough not to require a jacket until nearly 9 and that just meant that nighttime was cool enough to sleep! Saturday I was out and about long enough to “get some color” on…
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Being a Chooser
WALKING TO WORK YESTERDAY I saw one of the multitudes of unhoused that roam our streets. He was hunched over, draped in his blanket, and wearing a large floppy hat. He looked, it struck me, exactly like so many ancient engravings (such as heads up this post). And as he passed me, he was engaged…
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Homeless Life in SF
Homo quidam erat dives…There was a certain rich man… WE HAVE A HUGE HOMELESS problem in San Francisco. The problem is we have a huge, wealthy population that’s scared of homeless people.They are scared that property values might fall.They are scared that job candidates might get turned off.They are scared that poor people might cause crimes.They…
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Open Letter: California Emerging
To:The Honorable Gavin Newsom, Governor of the great state of CaliforniaSacramento, CA Honorable Sir, BANNING GASOLINE VEHICLES is a great step in reducing California’s carbon emissions. However, it is not the first step we should be taking. While well-intentioned doing so would only be a pat on the back for the wealthy in our state…
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A New SF Calendar
ONE FORGETS IN WHICH of her books she did this, but Starhawk commented on how Lunar Calendars all have regional names and she suggested one for SF. Legit, I’ve read almost all of her books except the most recent couple, I can’t remember which one this was. But it was back in the 80s before…
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Day 100. Facie ad Faciem
QUARANTINE’S FIRST TERRIFIED PANIC led to a tedium where days blent together in disordered shades of fog. This, in turn, parted like a curtain on a sort of political theater which allows us to pass the time with a modicum of excitement unrelated to our sickness or death. In my fear at the beginning of…
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Meeting in Public
For nearly 2 years Orthodox and Catholic men have joined in the Pint Pipe and Cross, SF, (Not Pictured). We have been meeting in a local bar, the Edinburgh Castle Pub, for enjoyment of a book, a beer, and pipe, as well as for fellowship. This has been a growing experience for all involved. It…
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You’re Not From Jerusalem, Are You?
+JMJ+ When I moved here in 1997, I was told that I would have to have been here for 6 months before anyone would believe I was staying. Until I hit six months, even with a job, I was just a tourist. In no time at all, it was evident that there were a lot…
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Stanley & Becoming a (Lay) Dominican (Tertiary)
+JMJ+I’m too old. Roman Catholic orders want young men. They all seem to max out at guys 15 years younger than me. Some don’t want guys more than 20 years younger than me. This is a sad reality for me. For while my experience in a monastery proved to me I wanted to try in…
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Pie in the Sky By and By When You Die
Today’s readings: Colossians 3:1-11 Luke 6:20-26 Beati pauperes, quia vestrum est regnum Dei. Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. Luke 6:20b It seems entirely possible to read this and other passages as if God likes poor people and hates the rich, as if there are so many ways…
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Seven Storey Mountain – reading along
At the tweeted suggestion of Steve, aka Steve the Missionary, as part of my post-RCIA Catechesis (Adult Reading for the Catholic N00b) I’ve been reading Thomas Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain: An Autobiography of Faith (from which edition all the page numbers are cited below). I very much dislike autobiography, to be honest, as of course would anyone…
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If Found: Send me Back to Barbary Lane
Sometimes there’s a sort of frisson around SF, that I belong here, that this is home in ways I can’t explain, that – as Anna Madrigal says to Mary Ann, “You’re one of us.” She means Atlantean because it was a good HippieSF idea that when all the Atlantean souls reincarnate they will all move back…
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The Dream
I was sitting in the second seat on a bus taking notes. Someone was in the first seat. The bus was stopped in a parking lot. The driver got off the bus and the buss started to roll forward. I was not scared: the bus would stop from the little rise in front of us.…
Orthoparadoxy 