Intellectual Icon: Berkeley's Campinele

Berkeley, CA – Every time I look out my living room window I am greeted with a vision of Berkeley's Sather Tower, known as the Campanile.  It stands 307 feet tall and is the third tallest bell and clock tower in the world.  To me, it represents intellectual stability. Writing the book A Year In California is both exhilarating and debilitating.  Feeling stuck in the writing process yesterday, I walked the two miles from my Oakland home to the Campinele and placed both hands on the cement structure, hoping to gain strength to continue on my path.  I was not disappointed.  The energy of 22 Nobel laureates passed through me, their undaunted courage inspiring me to continue.  I stepped back from this intellectual edifice in time to gain a whiff of some pungent cannabis coming from a man in his late 30s.  I took him to be a student of life, inhaled deeply, and made my way to the Bancroft Library.