(hidden) messages.

Word of the day: Festoon!

So, a few year ago i was walking down the sidewalk in Berkeley, on my way to the bike shop to have my bike tuned up, and suddenly i noticed a scaffolding coming up. the building on my right way being redone; there was plywood everywhere and a few intrepid people had stapled some playbills to the temporary wall. it had stormed early that morning, so the sidewalk was a soggy mess of leaves, fast-food wrappers, and a few of the unluckier playbills. upon further inspection, though, my eyes happened upon a bright red "A", right there in a bare patch among the detritus.
For some reason this stopped me dead in my tracks. i looked all around for the source of this "A", but couldn't see anything telling. it looked like a letter-transfer "A", perhaps one that had floated down from someone's graphic design office window. who knows. i left it there and was on my merry way-perhaps a little more thoughtful now, like when i left the theatre after seeing Andy Goldsworthy's Rivers and Tides, and everything was imbued with meaning and possibility.
I always tend to see things hiding within other things, and even though this "A" was literal and not simply an accidental meeting of, say, two tree branches, i couldn't forget it for a long time.

Following the "A" (what a lovely letter to begin with, wouldn't you say?), i began to notice other letters as they presented themselves to me. next were a "D" and an "O", red onion slices in my spinach salad one afternoon while having lunch in a restaurant. then i began to remember some, forget the others, so the list became this: A D O t h E a d. for many months, i swore to myself i would begin writing them down, but i never did. so after the "d", there were a few others, but they have been lost; forgotten.
More recently, there was a perfect "T" from a broken tree branch on the ground, with an extremely long tail, that i used to plumb the depths of a moss-covered pool of water in a statue garden. after that, there was a "y" and a few days ago another "A".

So what are all these letters trying to say? i'm certain that i don't know, and uncertain if i ever will know. but for now, i will keep my eyes open and keep track.

i almost wish (::cringe::) that i had a small digital camera, or a camera phone, so i could have it on me at all times, in order to better record these characters. for now i'll have to rely on the ol' memory, which, as it happens, is usually unusually excellent. (a little too excellent, in fact- living in the past has become a normal routine for me.)

next time- art classes from kindergarten; they were the best.
happy March, everyone.