For the longest time in my dreams - I dreamt that i was wandering through an infinite campus of sorts - the outlay of which receded before me as i meandered about-, but also coming into being and re-configuring itself as I, as we (students / professors / workers / technicians / visitors ) walked about - on our way... Some of the most marvelous facilities I have seen in my life - and in pristine condition - (was this just an eclectic combination of every previous campus i had seen???) - walkways, quads, porticos, buildings, lecture halls, research edifices of the most futuristic glint - made entirely of glass, a multi-layered student center replete with cafeteria, stores, boutiques and elevators expanding like an entire galaxy... and for the longest time I wondered - what are people doing here - or rather - what is the measure of their success - what kind of intellectual output justifies they're being here? While walking through these exquisite spaces - a visitor - a true alien in fact to this dreamworld - it came to me gradually - only after visiting many classrooms, libraries, offices, and laboratories - that they were here in fact to construct the FUTURE - to think up new ways and means ... new knowledge... new protocols... After a while - it was by no means unusual to pass by assorted thinkers and functionaries - tinkering like artisans at their various stations - but with stacks of papers, charts, diagrams, maps... hands clicking on computers... robotic assistants gathering up findings and machines spewing forth data in neatly organized corridors - like bees in a hive.
We had made our way down busy Palm Avenue towards the crosswalk. after zigzagging the usual route from busy Bandini Avenue to Tower Road to Rosewood Place. Bret was our wild-man companion - a fifth-grader with a take-no-prisoners approach to life. The local crosswalk, that most mundane of enterprises was soon to become the scene of spontaneous absurdist theater when suddenly out of nowhere came the random yelp: Hey...Hey...What do you want with us lady? - What do I want with you? said the most predictably normal gray-haired woman by whose ever so brief guidance we measured our daily jaunt to school. Yeah - where are you taking us? - There's only one way kid - It's this way... - You're not really a crossing guard are you? came the cheeky interrogative. The slightly bemused, limping, beleaguered woman was dwarfed by her bright yellow uniform as she held up her STOP sign - showing Brett. The other smaller kids walked by us single file in the middle of th...
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