Today Helen graduated with her MBA from the Haas School of Business. I had been planning to go for months, but decided within the past few weeks that it would be more awkward and painful than cathartic. So I stayed in SF instead.
Today was also the day of the venerable Bay to Breakers race, which is now in its 98th year. The race is famous for its steep hill, outlandish costumes, and bursts of nudity. I walked alongside the throng for a while, finding that the most festive part of the course is in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park. Neighbors along the course set up speakers, and it seems that the best party songs are the oldies--my favorites were "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" and "Disco Inferno."
As the participants entered Golden Gate Park proper, I veered north and found myself in the Inner Richmond. I love Clement St., and hadn't strolled along it for a while. As sure as night follows day, I eventually found myself at Green Apple Books. I'm still marveling at my restraint, as my only outlay was $1 for Mona Simpson's 1986 novel Anywhere But Here. This became a movie of the same title in 1999, starring Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman.
The book begins with an epigraph from Ralph Waldo Emerson, which was oddly appropriate for Helen's graduation day: "There are three wants which can never be satisfied; that of the rich wanting more, that of the sick, wanting something different, and that of the traveler, who says, 'anywhere but here.'"
Helen is that traveler, and this is why we're splitting up. Sometimes I think to myself that we'd always have been together if we'd never left New York. But that would have been a relationship under duress; Helen's will to roam was plain from the start. It's been a tumultuous and distressing year, but in the end I'd rather get through this than persist in a marriage held together by chains.
Hey Marcus,
Sorry to miss this post when you put it up. I appreciated reading it.
Sincerely,
John
Posted by: John | May 24, 2009 at 01:37 PM