Tuesday night I decided to throw my bike on the bus, I was so tired and I saw the most beautiful thing.  I like to sit in the accordion section of the bus because I can tuck my pannier in between the seat and the high step of the bench seat.  Then I can pull out my book.  There was a lady sitting across from me also reading.  Just before the border of Santa Monica and Westwood these two young boys got on and sat next to me and her respectively as we each had empty seats next to us as we faced each other.  They were between 9-12, latino and brothers.  They were both wearing jeans and punk rock shirts and black sweatshirts and were carrying black backpacks.  They sat down and the older brother handed across a peppermint candy then they both reached into their backpacks and pulled out books.  AND pens! The younger brother was sitting next to me and he was reading Lord of the Flies and highlighting with an orange highlighter.  The older brother across from me was reading Civil Disobedience and chose to mark his book with a blue pen and brackets.  They read the whole way to Normandie.  I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, “we’re in the reading section,” as I feared they’d just think I was an old dork.  I just sat reading and looking up and marvelling at these budding intellectuals, dissidents, radical thinkers and allowed myself to imagine a whole story about somehow running into one of them in twenty years at a gathering or action of some sort.  In this time of a daily barrage of bad news it’s all I have to hold onto–the FUTURE.

blackbloc sons and little ones.