A View From A Bridge

This was a very difficult day for which to choose my blip. Ceridwen & I visited the Philadelphia Magic Garden, a mosaic installation by Isaiah Zagar. That's a wonder that's impossible to capture properly with a camera. We also saw a mural that I've been passing for decades, but till now I never realized that it's a memorial to the Vietnamese Boat People, whose story I remember well. I've worked with, or been acquainted with a good many of them over the years, and if there's one group full of likely success stories on this planet, that group is Boat People. My family got here by boat as well, by the way, between 1620 and around 1910.

A poem in the mural, an exchange between a wife & husband, reads as follows:

King, Father, Mother, Husband, Wife.
Sat down in one boat.
Met a storm and sank.
Dearest, I want to know whom you would save?

Standing before Heaven, I cannot lie.
I would place
The King on my head,
Father and Mother on my shoulders,
And say to you, Dear Wife, swim here.
I will carry you on my back,
And with my hands, I'll save the boat.

But the mural will be there again tomorrow, and Zagar's masterpiece is a celebrated landmark after fourteen years in the making, so I chose this view of the Skuylkill River & the skyline from the University Avenue Bridge, which came out more pleasing to me than is usual. This is not where picture-postcard shots are taken, but it shows the expressway and a ramp that leads onto it, with an electrical power plant at center, and you may notice floating debris, mud along the banks from the recent floods, a freight train, and some fuel storage tanks.

The bridge we were standing on is interesting in itself, but that's another blip for another day.

I have not been commenting on all your blips as much as I'd like since Ceridwen's been here, but please know that I'll catch up and I really appreciate your comments on mine.