Walking the Walk

A couple of days ago as Mack and I walked to the beach, we noticed a ribbon of black paint strolling along the sidewalk with us. Some places were too smudgy and globby to read, but most were clear as a bell: "President Bush, this is a democracy, not a theocracy..."

A rolling message literally looped over and over and over the entire walk to the beach. It was pretty amazing that someone had not only invested the courage and the time to deliver this message to the masses in such a clever way, but also that he or she had engineered a device that let it be rolled out like a red carpet. I imagined it was like those popcorn push toys we had as kids, but this one with only one wheel, about 10 inches across so that the 2-foot-long message could be paved in one rotation. I was proud of whoever this was, for taking the time and making the effort.

Shopping on Melrose also opens the book on a lot of sneaky messages. Masked as graffiti on the sidewalk, it's easy to walk over these sometimes beautiful, sometimes bland, sometimes poignant, sometimes enigmatic sentiments. But I've never been so rewarded for watching my feet shuffle as I have been in this place. Thanks to the people who decorate the concrete.