symbols, signs and omens

On Saturday, Young, Julie, Jeff, Sultan and I went to the Day of the Dead altars at SomArts. Some of the altars were very chilling in how they remembered the dead. There was one altar that featured old black and white photographs from the wakes of those who have passed, some of them mere babies. It was very spooky to see a newborn child so still and lifeless. I've been lucky to be present for the births of my nieces and see them only hours after their births. But I had never seen anything like these photographs before. Other installations were less somber and more celebratory about the lives of the people who were lost. All of the installations were incredibly creative. One represented a tea party. Another represented the time period when the artist's grandfather had to leave Germany for Peru to escape the Nazis. The most interactive and fun was a huge statue with the torso of an angel, and when you stuck your head into a chapel with a camera, your face would appear on a round screen above the shoulders of the statue, topped with a halo. We had a lot of fun with that one.

I think about death a lot, mostly because I am reminded how fragile life is because I see so much road kill out here in West Marin. I know that often animals cross the road when it is not necessarily safe, but I am a little disturbed by the thought that the people driving the cars don't slow down at night when they know that nocturnal animals are out and about. I always see deer, raccoons, foxes and rabbits on the side of the road when I am coming home at night. For this reason, I always drive with more caution than usual. But apparently others don't, and when I drive by these listless bodies of deer whose necks and legs are bent in unnatural ways, I am saddened by the loss of life. I want to contact whoever is responsible for Marin County roads and ask them to put up more deer crossing signs and more streetlights out here to protect the sanctuary for the wildlife that lives out here and roams the roads at night in search of food and water.

My friend Tanya told me that the other day she was hiking on Mt. Tam. She actually was trying to find her ex on the mountain. She knew he was up there, and she knew that she shouldn't try to find him because it was over between them. When all of a sudden, a coyote crossed her path. The coyote looked scraggy and skinny and ugly. She took this coyote as a sign and immediately turned back and walked back to her car.

I rode my bike into the city on Saturday. It was a gorgeous sunny day. When I was in Mill Valley, my hometown, a flock of Canadian geese flew in front of me, right as I passed by my old high school in a beautiful V. On my way home from San Francisco on Sunday, I rode by the high school again, when I saw these same geese fly by me again. They were flying so low to the ground that I felt like I could jump into the V and join them on their path.