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Think about it...
By
Matt Simione
I caught the Richmond train in Fremont by mistake. I don’t know what I was thinking, but when I realized my mistake I was already in Berkeley. Pushing myself past a trio of young women and their mountain bikes, I exited just as the doors were closing.
I hadn’t been in Berkeley since …let’s see…1992. Wow, where’d the years go? The next train to San Francisco wasn’t for ten minutes so I sat on the concrete bench and waited. Benches made of cement. How in the world did anyone ever sell that concept?
I envisioned a young up and coming business type pointing at a set of blue-prints. “And here, here and… right here, we’ll have benches made of cement.”
“Cement?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Cement?”
“Yes.”
More than a few eyebrows must have raised in that room. To me the obvious next question would be “Why?”
“Why?”
“Yes, why? Why cement?”
This is the point where salesmanship came in to play. Think of it. How do you convince a group of people, especially City Planners, to construct seating out of cement? Cement. It doesn’t really scream ‘comfort’, does it?
But, there they were… seating made of concrete. What a salesman.
I couldn’t get this out of my mind. When the right train came by and whisked me into the City I found that my thoughts were consumed with this idea of concrete benches. It made me chuckle. Of course, it was inevitable. I mean, if there’s one thing San Francisco has a lot of, it’s cement. It’s everywhere. It’s on the ground, it’s in the sky… It’s everywhere.
Would it be possible to actually figure out how much cement there is in the City? And how do you classify cement anyway? Is it in feet, yards, or what? Wait. No, I mean weight. I think it might be by weight.. Pounds? Tons? Ok, so I’m not an Engineer, sue me.
By the time I reached my destination I noticed that a number of my fellow passengers were starring at me. What? What did I do? Smile too much? Did I laugh out loud? Was I talking to myself? Yeah, right; that’s the first time you’ve seen someone on the Bart (or in the Bay Area) do that. Get a life.
I got off the train at the 19th Street Station and took the elevator. Have you ever taken the elevator instead of the stairs? I love the feeling I get when I ‘pop up’ onto the Street. Try it one day, you’ll understand what I mean.
Anyway, this thing with cement seating prompted me to consider other ideas that might, on the surface, not seem practical, but actually warrant serious consideration. After all, if you can convince people that sitting on cement is a good thing then you can convince them of anything. Such as…Film actors make good Governors, politicians are genuinely concerned about your welfare, America is really a Christian country, racism has been eliminated, George W. Bush is smart… There’s no end to it. The sky is the limit. Think about it.
You’re not buying any of this, are you? Well, hold on…sit here a minute. Yeah, right here on the cement bench. Let’s talk.
Copyright © 2005 Matt Simione
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