The Conical Glass: The 384 Steps

Friday, July 17, 2009

The 384 Steps

I woke up this morning filled with the overwhelming urge to do something different today. It was a beautiful day, so I decided to take the bus over to San Francisco and walk up the Filbert Steps, something I hadn't done in many years. The Filbert Steps run up the side of Telegraph Hill, and when you finally get to the top, you can walk around Coit Tower and enjoy the views. (For $5, you can take the elevator up to the observation deck, but there was a line and it seemed a bit claustrophobic; you can still go inside and look at the murals for free.)

It was an unusually clear day, and while there was a bit of fog rolling in from the Pacific, the views looking toward the East Bay were spectacular. I didn't think to bring my camera, but really, there's no shortage of photos on the web, so it's no great loss. I went down the other side of the hill, taking time to stop by tiny Jack Early Park and watch the ferries heading to and from Alcatraz.

When I got to the bottom, I started heading back toward the Embarcadero. A few steps ahead of me were three people: a gray-haired guy, a woman, and a girl of maybe 10 or 12. I'm not sure exactly what happened, because I wasn't really paying attention, but apparently, a guy in a red car who was trying to pull out of a parking space was cut off by another driver who zoomed past him. The guy in the red car started yelling at the driver, but it was pretty fruitless because he was gone. Instead, he decided to vent his ire on the gray-haired dude, who had apparently made the mistake of looking at him the wrong way. I'm pretty sure he didn't say anything, or at least, I didn't hear him say anything.

"What the fork is the matter with you, you gray-haired fork?" he yelled. (Note: he did not actually use the word "fork.") Gesturing wildly with his middle finger, he continued to swear at the man, who kept walking, along with the two others. I hoped they weren't tourists, otherwise they'd have a pretty bad impression of San Franciscans. I assumed that was the end of it, but I was oh so wrong, because after a block or so, Red Car came up and stopped in the street so he could continue to address Gray Hair. He was screaming. I don't remember everything he said, but he definitely accused Gray Hair of being "one of those forking Christians" -- I don't know where that came from. Gray Hair asked him, "What is your problem?" which just set him off further. Red Car threatened all sorts of violence before driving off. At this point, I turned left and Gray Hair and his companions kept walking straight ahead. I hope that was the last they saw of the motorist. It was very scary, and really shook me up; I can't even imagine what it would have been like to be the target of his spleen-venting.

My Encounters with Anger were not over, however. On the bus back home was a mother and young child, maybe 5 or 6. He was crying when they got on the bus and didn't stop, despite the fact that she kept telling him to "shut up." Her voice got increasingly louder. "Shut up or I'm going to whoop your ass," she threatened, and when that didn't work, she made the even more sinister remark: "If you don't SHUT UP RIGHT NOW, you're going to have to go over to your other grandma's." What horrors could await there? Maybe, like at the Simpsons' Patty and Selma, the only beverages on offer are "clamato, Mr. Pibb and soy milk." He finally stopped crying, so the Mother of the Year could move on to yelling at him to wipe his nose.

A few days ago, I was talking to some friends about a new age theory that all of our health issues are caused by certain emotions or thought patterns. My chronic shoulder pain is, apparently, caused by "repressed anger, wanting to hit someone." I mentioned that I thought this was kind of funny, because I don't think of myself as being an angry person at all. I get peeved or annoyed sometimes -- listening to the grandstanding senators at the Sotomayor hearings, for instance. But I wouldn't say I'm a ticking time bomb of repressed anger.

Then again, if repressing anger leads to pain, is expressing anger healthy? If so, the guy in the red car and the mom on the bus must be in tip-top condition.

posted by 125records @ 5:53 PM

1 Comments:

At 10:13 AM, vallerose said…

HI Sue,
Enjoyed reading about your adventures at Coit Tower.
Your mention of new age theories about illness brings back memories of similar discussions I had 20 years ago and reminded me why I take new age theories of disease with huge amounts of salt. There is too much 'blame the victim' and not enough thought about actual physical causes.
Vallery