It was such an idyllic scene outside the MPR today at 4:46pm. It was still raining slightly and I had my umbrella out. The umbrella blocks the upper part of my field of vision, restricting the foveal viewport to bounce around the boundaries of the lower latitudes in such a way that, when the veil is finally lifted, the extended range appears foreign and startling. Here around me existed a number of characters whose traits could be summarized in the color blue, deep with compassion and kindness. Perhaps this perception was one of circumstance—relative and not absolute, that is. But no matter, it remains that this was not an atmosphere of competition nor indifferent apathy. It was brotherhood in its purest sense, if the word can be applied to more than the masculine. Man with his technology—cell phones and heptagonal deflector shields¹—against the world? N0, not the world. Not nature. There was no enemy here against which this brotherhood stood. It simply existed, because the circumstances of the past led it to exist at this place and time. Existing because it exists. That is the best kind of mood there is.

No other situation could have better accommodated the arrival of the news that Steve Jobs had died. I supposed platforms like Twitter were specifically designed for such a situation. During the AP crisis, it was also there. I don’t think any other platform could be so appropriate and brilliantly designed for this unique role. The idea is that tweets are so integral with picturesque scenes like this one. This characteristic is especially important, as they do not immerse the user in another world as most social networking platforms do. Essentially, Twitter holds a small niche, but it is so irreplaceably apt and correct for these non-ordinary days. If only it had more penetration and reach in our community, or if only our community was more aware of the appropriateness of social media, something like this could undergo the network effect and really change the entirety of how human beings² experience the extraordinary. I’m sorry that in this, my topics are so eclectic and my diction, so obscure, that hardly anyone will understand it. He was an icon of our age and it’s difficult to see him go.