San Francisco just held its annual wild costumed (or naked) race yesterday. Reminded of this story:
I can’t stand fighting or videos thereof. Hitting someone means you’re willing to kill someone. Surely only happens <0.1% of the time. But should be reserved for safety issues (self defense), not genitalia measuring.
Yesterday! That's right, two decades ago my wife and I were visiting SF at this time of year, right around the Bay To Breakers.
To this day I cannot fully wrap my head around the concept that a city would host such a peculiar event with mass public nudity, and I applaud it, a non-prudish attitude towards one's own body is a healthy attitude, at minimum it's a step in the right direction.
But instead of going to see the Bay To Breakers, we opted for something... shall we say... a little more refined, more spiritual? We attended Sunday morning service at an African Orthodox church.
There I was, an atheist, dragging my wife to Sunday mass, so what gives? This was something special, The Church Of Saint John Coltrane. Three hour service, two and a half of 'em live jazz, with around 10 or 12 musicians.
Afterwards, we congratulated the bishop for the extraordinary experience, and at his recommendation, my wife and I had lunch at a soul food restaurant nearby.
That was a special, special Sunday, I do not regret missing out on the Bay To Breakers that day.