Gnarles was in my head when I left work today. Crazy how a song can infiltrate a relatively harmless walk home, but suddenly whoop-bam! there it was out of nowhere (seriously I haven’t heard the song in days) just in time for my .7 mile walk in the stinging cold of Boston’s harbor. Weaving through the Financial District with looming glass, brick, and mortar overhead has its fair share of "crazy" fun, so why the hell not have an apropos soundtrack in my head to guide me? I walk in any weather condition, bundling up and looking quite ridiculous most days, soaking to the bone on some, and sweating under multiple layers more often than not. I walk without ear buds to hear the waves lapping near the actual site of the Boston Tea Party at Fort Point Channel, to hear the rain as it pelts my umbrella, and even to hear the winded conversations of busy walkersby texting or talking their way down the street. It is rare when I spot a fellow listener. Mostly I am alone in my reality real-time, hearing my own thoughts choosing not to drown out the everyday madness of the city surround sound.
Pedestrian crossings have many challenges here. Today the Devil's horseman, piloting a black four-door sedan of course, raged over white lines just three feet from me with no directional threatening to run off any other commuter that dares get in the way, not even braking for the lady at the corner with a cane yet screeching to a halt at the next traffic light. The others horseman creep up next to the Devil only to boggle at the impatient crazy clearly wondering if perhaps this one is truly in a hurry for a purpose or just in a hurry to hurry. Surprisingly, the sedan didn't run the red light like the N-star van. That white and blue bullet saw a clearing and just as I was crossing the double yellow with both feet it bolted right through the light within two blocks of a police officer directing traffic.
Luckily, I was well out of the way and decided to take the scenic route through the new pedestrian alley by the Hotel Intercontinental, passing a gallery displaying a giant black wire bust of Albert Einstein boasting the same metallic black as the Devil's sedan and oozing just as much pomposity in all its 3-D glory. Gnarles continued thumping along to the beat of my paisley rain slickers.
Luckily, I was well out of the way and decided to take the scenic route through the new pedestrian alley by the Hotel Intercontinental, passing a gallery displaying a giant black wire bust of Albert Einstein boasting the same metallic black as the Devil's sedan and oozing just as much pomposity in all its 3-D glory. Gnarles continued thumping along to the beat of my paisley rain slickers.
Still... Gnarles, the Devil, N-star and Einstein are just observations on my quest to somehow decompress my work-tapped brain. People are amazing and infuriating and really all I can do is keep one foot ahead of the other, breathing deliberately and walking with purpose, whether I do or don't have a destination in mind.
