walking to school

when i first moved to berkeley - no - when i moved to berkeley for the second time recently, i was mildly afraid of walking to and from school. after all, the resort-like atmosphere of stanford had gotten me accustomed to a leisurely walk across beautifully manicured lawns and streets. not to put down stanford's beauty, because i still love it as much :), but walking to school these days has a different kind of richness to it. meditative, but in a different fashion.

there are all kinds of people one sees on the street. last friday, i saw a man walking in front of me pretending to shoot a basketball through the hoop. there was no hoop, there was no ball, but as he walked, he repeated this gesture several times. what was the psychology that led him to do so? who was the person, what was his past like? i wondered, but i had no answers - naturally.

today as i walked past lower sproul, i saw a homeless guy lying asleep on a bench. he had a backpack with him, and a book with "lenin" written on it was lying half-open over the backpack. i wondered how that person came to be where he was. how does intellectual curiosity not die when a person has no home to live in the comfort of? is that not inspiring?

every day, there are new people to see, to walk across. life is renewing itself every day, ever offering potential for self-exploration and further thought.

for being able to walk these streets to and from school every day, i am grateful :).