Yesterday a friend invited me to share her free tickets to see the musical Cabaret. I jumped at the offer, and we went to the Golden Gate Theater last night. The production very movingly presented the rise of the Nazi party and its anti-Semitism. The company did a wonderful job of making me feel horrible. I disliked all the characters, and hated that period of history. The final tableau of a death camp prisoner wearing a yellow star and a pink triangle left me thoroughly bummed out - sad and angry and ashamed to be human.
Then I drove us home. When we turned up Hyde Street, we saw City Hall, all lit up in rainbow colors. My jaw dropped and the car stopped, fortunately not too far from a red light. After we turned the corner onto McAllister, my friend suggested we pull to the curb to admire the view. So we did.
The illuminated building was so very beautiful. There was a layer of lights at the street level, another layer at the base of the dome, and other lights at the very top of the dome. They changed very slowly, as if the spectrum was gradually playing over City Hall.
The beauty of the display was like a beacon of hope in the darkness. We could feel the colors entering our eyes and skin; they came into our open mouths and we tasted them. We were nourished, and warmed, and inspired by the profound and magical beauty of those glorious colors against the stone building and night sky. We felt their textures and inhaled their aromas, and just drank them in with total awe and gratitude. I was moved to exclaim, "God bless the City and County of San Francisco!"
That was quite a palate-cleanser.
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