In one of our last days here, on a Friday, we went to the deYoung. We got seduced there, just like we had at other spots in time that give you passionate kisses in memory: Garin Park at sunset. Bay to Breakers in a horrible rain. Geekhaus parties and drives along 280. That fog that rolls in over 101 in September. Friends who make you laugh until you have a hard time breathing. And the deYoung on a sunny day in late March.
The place was all modernist angles, and made us feel somewhat fashionable just by being there, gawking at all the religious artifacts lifted from island cultures. That someone took weeks and even years to slowly chip away at bone to make something of such significance, just to trade it away to visiting dignitaries -- the feeling of having no room for error wasn't lost on us, even in a city so forgiving of one's quirks and faults.
However, in sunlit rooms and windowed spaces, at least for only that day, we felt free of the world and able to give the city its last due. It was also tinged with some regret -- how could it not be, when we discover a place of this shining brilliance only to fly away -- but this was the day we wanted: to see the light in everything.
We followed it up with a Will Ferrell movie at my favorite movie house, mainly because she didn't want tragedy and neither of us wanted computer-animated right wing gore; no matter. There, in the dark, we laughed in those old seats, held hands, and silently thought to ourselves about the change that was coming. Afterwards, I snuck in one of the other theatres and snapped the flash right when one eerily ironic frame from a preview was showing.
I used to think that San Francisco was a city of possibility -- and, to a great extent, I think it still is. People can reinvent themselves and change the world in this place. However, I've realized that possibility exists in my son's deep blue eyes, when he looks far up in the sky without saying anything, and lets that slight knowing smile play over his face and disappear. I want to see that happen again, as much as possible.
And so it's time to take flight, back to the Old World. But I'm still buying a bear flag and hanging it out on September 9th.
