August 5th 10 am

I'm sure that my postings to this blog will be erratic; I'd like them to occur daily, just for the discipline of getting some writing done every day; but I'm sure that won't happen. (I'll try for three times a week to start.) So, for good measure, here are two posts on the first day.

Walking is, of course, a major activity for any new mother. I live in one of the more horizontally challenged parts of the city of San Francisco, so I usually drive to where I'm going to walk the baby; this has led me to explore many different neighborhoods in recent weeks. My baby stroller bounces the kid around quite a bit but he actually seems to like that; to make sure he's not jolted too much, however, I walk rather slowly. So my walks have taken on the quality of what the French 19th century poets called "la flanerie"; "flaner" means to wander; to stroll with no particular destination in mind, and (implied) to dream and meditate as one walks.

San Francisco is a good city for wanderers; in many respects it's a city for the lost. By "lost" I mean, those who have escaped the frenetic, media-driven side of 21st century civilization; those who have stepped "outside," as Andrei Codrescu might put it (see his book, The Disappearance of the Outside).

Most people would say that I'm nuts to call San Francisco a "city for the lost," insofar as it's also an epicenter of media-driven activity, as well as the invention of new media (given its connection to Silicon Valley). However, parts of the city fit that description.

Take, for example: the Outer Sunset. The Outer, Outer Sunset. Ocean Beach, the Great Highway; Sloat, Taraval, Noriega, Judah and Irving Streets, after 40th Avenue. A corner of the City where owners of small, eclectic businesses eke out a living; where homeless and near-homeless people seem to congregate; where people go to hear the foghorns and ocean waves and forget themselves in sand dunes and secret cafes. Perfect spot for the determined flaneur like me. My baby is, without his consent, being indoctrinated into the flaneur lifestyle. But then, all babies are born flaneurs.