The God of Gravity

The morning air was paper thin. It left my lungs in want. The cooling touch of it, almost sharp against my face, did not trouble me. I found great promise in the absence of a steady mist that had become so rapidly familiar to me. I had been in San Francisco for three days, and I had yet to see the sun. 

The streets were still quiet, and so I was embarrassed at my attempts to clang shut the heavy bars of iron that gate the cramped stairway to the apartment of my good friends Nate and Andrea. Deep breaths and the adrenaline of waking to immediate physical activity warmed me as I slapped my weary rubber soles against the steep incline of the sidewalk, hoping that fierce steps would make the pain in my feet much easier to ignore. I was greeted by slender blades of weepy grass as I cautiously made my way to one of several narrow paths that trace along the strict slope of Bernal Hill. After walking just a little ways, I found myself standing on a large, flat patch of dirt where a number of these narrow paths intersect, staring down at a family of jagged stones. It took only a handful of nervous steps before I was calmly seated on the rocks, reflecting on the path that had led me here. 

There is something very magical about watching an entire city try and shake itself from sleep. Especially San Francisco. Through it all, this place has a vibrant pulse. It is as if great ideas carry the morning mist. Even the hum of the electricity is unique. There is life here, and it sways gracefully in the morning hours. After a long night of providing a false sense of security to some, and distracting others from the brilliance of the moon, the textured row of streetlights begin to gradually fizzle out. The tops of all the tall buildings in the Financial District and the surreally faint outline of the Golden Gate Bridge are still somewhat hidden by the foggy distance. Above the brash colors of the Mission District, they are much like charcoal sketches floating above a watercolor world. I wish that there was nothing metaphorical about this juxtaposition of bright against grey.