Climbing Nob Hill - Part 2

What a difference a day makes!  

Taking off yesterday due to a full schedule starting at 7:15 with a presentation by Chanda Beckman, Agricultural Counsel for the Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) in Chengdu, China was better than more urban hiking.  She is a young, professional having served in China for four years now promoting US agricultural interests.   She was full of energy and completely engaging, and a marked contrast with representatives from US Census and Customs and Border Protection who we met with at the end of the day on a more esoteric Ag topic.

Some people like to believe the government is ineffective. Ms. Beckman and her colleagues in the foreign services represent a different kind of commitment to our nation from the military.  The conditions are less dangerous, yet not necessarily more accommodating.  When Ms. Beckman talked about poor air and water quality, and the simple pleasures of drinking water from the tap on this visit to the States, it makes you think about all that we have, and what simple things others due without or have never experienced.

Taking Adrian's advice to get outside, I got out at 6:15 this morning, and did the loop again six times for 5.4 miles of descents and ascents in 1:35 hours.  I felt better overall (no Super Brunello last night).  I enjoy seeing cities come to life with the new day . .  a cook carrying a box of bananas into the Roxanne Cafe, people walking up Powell to go to work at the hotels on Nob Hill, others out with their dogs. Following breakfast down Nob Hill and another ascent, total feet climbed in the morning was about 6300.  

Here is the descent - Powell:

Here is the ascent - Taylor:

I passed a few more homeless people sleeping in doorway recesses on the route today.  Three in total, and none were the same as one from Wednesday who was with a dog.  They were not panhandling, they were sleeping as I walked my route again and again.  I cannot imagine an on-going life on the street, regardless of the underlying causes of the situation.  I know San Francisco is more tolerant and therefore cynics could cite that they flock there to take advantage of city programs. Yet in the most economically powerful country in the world today, it is difficult to understand how we tolerate the loss of these souls, and others around the country.  The "boot straps" argument rings hollow for me, and more so following our reading of Man's Search of Meaning.  This existence lacks meaning and really seems like day-to-day survival - trying to meet the base of Maslow's pyramid, physiological needs.

Without a "Frankl" to help point the way to meaning, what will become of these people?  If there is indifference for the conditions of those on the margins of the economy and society, what does it say about us as a nation and a people?