Every day I go for a half-hour bike ride, and San Francisco is one of the best cities in the world to get outdoors. My normal loop is through the Presidio and under the Golden Gate Bridge, with a stop for midday prayer at a favorite bench. Most of the joggers who pass within two feet of my bench don’t look up, but I say hello nonetheless and try not to be put off if they do not respond. This morning I called out a cheery “Good Morning” to a young woman whose hearing was blocked up with earbuds, but she didn’t look up. A few minutes later a gloomy-looking young man came along the same trail, and when I said “good morning” he looked up in surprise. A faintly sad smile passed over his features, and he said hello in return.
It made me think of a man in his thirties who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge a few years ago. He left a note in his apartment that said “I’m going to walk to the bridge. If at least one person smiles at me on the way, I will not jump.” An hour later the waves were dragging the remains of his body back and forth five hundred feet below the cars speeding to and from San Francisco. Mother Teresa once said to her sisters, “Today we have no time. The father and mother are so busy. The children come home and there’s no one to love them, to smile at them.”
A few years ago I made a commitment to say hello to at least one perfect stranger a day in this city. Today I decided to say hello, with a smile, to every stranger I see on that trail to the Golden Gate Bridge.
It made me think of a man in his thirties who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge a few years ago. He left a note in his apartment that said “I’m going to walk to the bridge. If at least one person smiles at me on the way, I will not jump.” An hour later the waves were dragging the remains of his body back and forth five hundred feet below the cars speeding to and from San Francisco. Mother Teresa once said to her sisters, “Today we have no time. The father and mother are so busy. The children come home and there’s no one to love them, to smile at them.”
A few years ago I made a commitment to say hello to at least one perfect stranger a day in this city. Today I decided to say hello, with a smile, to every stranger I see on that trail to the Golden Gate Bridge.
Installing the $225 million suicide net under the Golden Gate Bridge.
RSS Feed