Because we live in the East Bay hills we often have spectacular views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. I bookmark a camera view that changes every minute. When the light looks promising I take my camera to one such view two minutes away.
That’s where I took this image.
I often arrive fifteen minutes or so before the image I’m hoping to photograph appears, and more often than not, I return empty-handed. A bank of clouds blocks the sun. All is lost. Not really all, as I love being up there in the late afternoons in winter.
I met a couple there two or three years ago, Marilyn and Griffin. They were out for an evening walk, and we chatted briefly. When I saw them this winter they greeted me. I was pleased that they remembered my name, had visited my website. Marilyn showed me an image that she had taken with her phone from that same place. “That’s lovely,” I said, then offered to make an 8x10 print of it for her. When she picked it up she was pleased and planning to have it framed. I offered to make a 16x20, too. “If you’re going to have it framed, you should have something large enough,” I told her. Here is the original jpeg from her phone. It looks great, framed over her piano, and smaller, in the bedroom.
All with an iPhone
When she picked it up she offered to host Jadyne and me for dinner as a way of thanking me. After bouts of Covid, first us, then her, we managed to all be well last night and had a wonderful dinner with her and Griffin.
I had googled Marilyn and discovered that she had grown up in Cincinnati and had attended Walnut Hills High School. She would have been a senior when I was an eighth grader. An English major, Marilyn received her Ph.D, and taught film studies at Cal until she retired. Griffin is also retired. He, too, is a professor, an anthropologist, but an event happened in 1994 that changed the trajectory of his life.
His fifteen year old son, Kenzo, was visiting a friend who thought the gun was empty.
The boy had removed the clip and didn’t realize that one shell remained in the firing position. Griffin has written a soon-to-be published book titled, “Who Killed Kenzo?”, reminding us that the answer to that question lies far beyond the friend who pulled the trigger.
Griffin’s advocacy to prevent gun violence goes beyond lawsuits against Beretta, the manufacturer of the gun. The New York Times reports the results of the work he’s done himself, and with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
“And lawmakers are listening.
Last week, for the fourth year in a row, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence — the nation’s leading gun safety advocacy group — ranked California first among all 50 states for “laws that can prevent gun violence.” These include requiring background checks, permits and legislation curtailing illegal gun sales.
California received a score of 80 out of 100 points. Arizona, Alaska and Utah received no points in the rankings.”
Posting Griffin’s website below.
…and here’s a link to an Opinion piece Griffin wrote, published by The Progressive Magazine.
A poll conducted in Britain concluded that among the worst things to come out of America, Trump was first, then Americans’ obsession with guns. Trump will soon be gone, but guns won’t. Only through work by such advocates as Griffin Dix can we hope to achieve the small victories that make America a better place to live.
And to answer the question, “What would you serve to people you don’t know?” Marilyn prepared carrots and guacamole appetizer, delicious rice that we smothered with a lemon and olive chicken dish (I had seconds), Bogle white and red wines, finished with pumpkin pie and whipped cream. Only in Kensington.
There’s a sad P.S. to this story. We had dinner three nights ago. Since then a gunman executed eleven people at a ballroom in Monterey Park before killing himself. A few minutes ago a suspect was arrested following two mass shootings near Half Moon Bay, killing seven people. The PS will then be PSS, then PSSS…