I make the slightest excuse to visit even if it requires a detour.

Only place in town where I wish I had a dog.

Reading Hannah Arendt’s foreword to the Walter Benjamin book, “Illuminations” and for the first time understanding why Arendt is held in such esteem by so many good thinkers.

Understanding, as I read Arendt, the full meaning of the word ‘flaneur’, and how the meaning is embodied in the life of Benjamin, the time he spent in Paris, and the urban planning imposed on the city that made it possible for a flaneur to persevere.

Not looking at my iPhone and therefore granting myself my very own 15 minutes of complete privacy, which I imagine to be far better than fame,

Tasting the sun as I would a cup of coffee.

I wonder who lives in the grand tower building across the street, and if there is a doorman.

Not having to go anywhere I don’t want to go or to see anyone I don’t want to see.

Where am I?

Alta Plaza Park, looking northeast, San Francisco, January 24, 2019. Photo by author.