Taking the Plunge
“Taking the Plunge” is the title of the opening chapter of Armistead Maupin’s book Tales of the City, the first volume of a series of books set in San Francisco during the 1970s. The series features Mary Ann Singleton, a twenty five year old from Cleveland, who is determined to conquer the world beyond Ohio. Like Mary Ann, I arrived in San Francisco determined to make the most of my short time in “The City by the Bay.”
It all started with a phone call with my friend Maria on which I was complaining about my sales job for a national hotel chain in Charleston, South Carolina. It had been two years since I graduated from the College of Charleston and even though I had a good job and was in a new relationship with my soulmate Chris, I wanted something more. Maria was managing a temporary staffing company in San Francisco and was having trouble generating new sales. She suggested on a whim that I come and help her revitalize the sales efforts. I checked with Chris and we agreed that it would be good for me to have a change of scenery. I called Maria back and packed my bags.
I’m not one to start a new venture without doing my homework. I went to Walden Books at the mall and bought every travel book I could find about San Francisco including travel essays and novels. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin made it on the pile. Of all the information I read about the city, it was Maupin’s book that resonated the most. I was soon back at the bookstore buying every volume of the series including More Tales of The City, the volume in which Grace Cathedral San Francisco is featured.
I arrived in San Francisco with a suitcase and a list of places to visit that I had read about in the Tales of The City books. I declared, to Maria’s chagrin, that I was going to complete a Mary Ann Singleton tour of San Francisco. I marked up a map of the city and laced up my walking shoes. A couple of months into my trip I found my way to the top of Nob Hill and visited Grace Cathedral. It was on this visit that I walked my very first labyrinth.
Just inside the cathedral I encountered a large canvas labyrinth. I was intrigued but decided not to walk. Admittedly, I was chasing Mary Ann into the rafters so I did not immediately tune into this new symbol. I did pick up a brochure regarding the Cathedral labyrinths and decided to walk the travertine labyrinth located outside. I followed the directions that Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress laid out in the brochure. I had no idea at the time how much work she had done to bring the sacred archetype to San Francisco. I also did not understand that her work had created the modern labyrinth movement. More on that in future posts.
Three giggling children joined me on my introductory labyrinth walk. They skipped along the unicursal pathway toward the center. It was a joyful moment. I can’t say I was hooked on that balmy, late August day. I was intrigued enough to purchase the postcard pictured as the lead to this blog, a fancy gold embossed greeting card and a glass paperweight etched with the Chartres Cathedral labyrinth at the cathedral bookstore. I did not know know the difference between a classical or medieval labyrinth design at the time, or the reason why the cathedral had chosen that particular design for its labyrinth.
I would not return to the Grace Cathedral or the labyrinth until Thanksgiving day that year. This was a planned visit with the intention of walking the labyrinth as a gratitude exercise following my holiday meal. I remember the day being sunny and comfortably cool. This time the labyrinth was empty. The city still beeped and buzzed around me when I took my first step onto the path. Just before I reached the center it happened; a profound sense of peace washed over me. The sounds of the city dropped off and a deep pocket of tranquility emerged. I was leaving San Francisco in a month to go back to Charleston and my soulmate, Chris, with a huge sense of accomplishment. As I returned from the center, I consciously resolved to continue to the build on the incredibly positive six month experience coming to a close. Subconsciously, my labyrinth experience stitched itself into the fabric of my soul. I had taken the plunge without even knowing it.