berkeley

It's raining again in Berkeley. Not an intermittent drizzle, but a solid, honest rain pommels the outdoor earth with vigor sufficient to instill religion and a deep gratitude for warm libraries, in which one may sit and write whilst contemplating the tempest a window pane away.

The library computer lab buzzes with the flurry of correspondence. On every terminal a boy or a girl, a man or a woman, reads electronic letters sent to them by their friends worlds away or types out their thoughts with admirable dedication to purpose. It would be a fabulous exhibit, I think, to simply capture all of the e-mail that arrives or embarks in this room, to place it all on display. Each is the snapshot of a life at a moment in time.