Charting Berkeley
Berkeley has so much to offer to the wayward wanderer, the traveling tourist, and the roaming resident. I captured but a small glimpse of that offering this July to share for you to see. You see, often we forget to look for the small things when we we only know about the big things. And Berkeley is BIG.
We know the UC Berkeley campus, walks down Fourth Street, Telegraph Avenue, College Avenue, and the long stretch from Shattuck Avenue to Gourmet Ghetto. And what I offer is still among that, but I like to show a different side of it. A more quiet and quaint side to somewhere only we know.
In Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s book the Little Prince says, “What makes a desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.” Berkeley is that well in a desert. A well that one only discovers after walking day and night in brisk air and silent contemplation.
Upon reaching the well, he sees the pulley, the bucket, and the rope, all ready for use. And now I realize that everything was there if we all just knew where to look with a different eye.
OHLONE PARK. My first trip was to the park right across the street from my apartment. Starting from Martin Luther King Jr. Way, it stretches all the way to Sacramento and to go even further, one can take the bike/pedestrian trail all the way to El Cerrito! (Oh how I did wander from my sidewalk path)
What made me see it through different eyes was the crowd of children running to the climbing structure of ropes. One boy stayed on the bottom and jumped up and down, as if challenging the others to climb on bouncing ropes. And climb they did.
I was already on top. From above, I saw them swiftly glide to my perch and realized, “Ah, this is now not my place to be.” I congratulated the children on their efforts and took a picture to commemorate.
It’s interesting to see how even the same places you go can make you feel differently based on the person or people you go with. Like a new layer of leaves on the same branch, we create new memories in the same place as leaves do on a trunk.
This is a view from the Big C in Berkeley. I went here once with a special person. While this person is no longer in my life, I braced myself and came again with another special person. I expected to feel melancholy but the whole time I was at peace.
Not only the person, but your perspective is important. What I experienced at the Big C was the cacophony of music coming from the whole city of Berkeley. Sirens, construction workers, honking horns, and the carillon bells. This piano that makes no sound is the representation of that medley.
As I traveled I came across flowers, too. What marvelous creatures they are. Some are cared for, and some care for themselves. Each city has its own unique floral arrangement.
Sometimes people are too busy finding the big things that they overlook the small things. Sometimes, I’m too busy finding the small things that I overlook the big things. But small things aren’t so bad once in a while. We’ll see things this:
Small things are simply unfathomable.
And so are the big things.
I don’t even know what it is that I’m supposed to have learned from this adventure. If anything.
But I think what I really want to shout out into this echo chamber is this:
I am grateful. Grateful for this most unique experience in being able to take my time to travel to the city that I would have never dreamed of.
