Howdy, San Franciscans. Right about now, funk soul brothers, it is something like 38 degrees out, where I am, over here... The sky is gray, the pavement is wet, the wind is chilly and the slush is falling. You can't see more than 20 feet ahead of you, at least not from the 18th floor window I'm peering out of. People here walk around with downcast eyes, downtrodden expressions and no light and no soul eminating from their thoracic cavities. For all that it's worth, and for all the misery you put up with (insane homeless levels, filth, angst, con jobs, confusion, pain, anguish...the lot of it), look outside your window, go to your local watering hole, just walk out your front door and thank whomever your God is that you still live and breathe in San Francisco. For all the bad that exists there - the psychos, the stalkers, the dregs, the klub kids living off daddy's money while posturing like they're down with the down-and-out...for all of the filth on 6th & Market and then some...for the crooked bullsh*t politics of His Holiness Willie "Downtown" Brown... for the fact that Herb Caen no longer technically walks among you...for the influx of evil, Starbuck's suckin Yuppie hell-cats....
Yet...for the way the sun comes up over Oaktown...for the way the Bay Bridge and the entire San Francisco skyline glisten in the golden light of late afternoon, and the way that makes one catch his breath...for the way the morning fog rolls on out and leaves a dewey mist in it's wake...for the scent of eucalyptus that you'd happily joke was cat pee...for the way that once you've left, you're never quite the same and the mere sight of her beauty makes your chest hurt becuase you know you're not with her....
Appreciate your moments in San Francisco. You never know when or how they might end. And you can't replicate them, no matter how hard you try - no matter how far you go, no matter what you try to fill your lives with in the hereafter.
No matter what your sadness is today, no matter what pain you might be caused or feeling....you are still there. And I hope you can embrace that. Because let me tell you - not being there is wretched, hollow and painfully lacking...