An Inspirational Parking Lot

“The only way to have a friend is to be one.” Yes, a thought-provoking apercu, but I think you will be surprised when I tell you that it did not come from a fortune cookie but from a parking lot on Powell and Vallejo. A week ago, Jordan and I were trudging to our car one night, tired and hungry, when we noticed that every parking space proffered a painted motto. One assured us: “Your relatives adore you.” Another promised playfully: “Happiness is trying to catch you.” Yes! Maybe if I just stopped trying, I thought, happiness would catch up with me. Why are sagacious mottoes confined to fortune cookies? Why not paint them where people are most in need of them, like in this grim multi-storey parking lot—or at the DMV or the INS? But one space darkly reminded: “One day you won’t be here.” Humph. It was one thing for the lot to offer Hallmark platitudes, quite another for it to proffer a memento mori. “We’ll contemplate our mortality if and when we want to!” I told Jordan.