Baby, it's cold outside

I'm getting used to being disappointed.  I know everyone's wrapping up their semesters; I know it's cold outside; but some blind glimmer of hope in me still thought people would come out to wander the streets of Center City.

Eh.

At least Rena and I had a good time.

We left Lakeside (my apartment) and went "where the Spirit led."  Honestly, for the first few blocks, I just walked where there was a green light.  I figured that the Spirit wouldn't want us to get run over by cars.

As we got to Spruce and, I think, 15th, I started feeling a weird nudge.  So we made a turn onto 15th.  After a couple blocks, we encountered a Dido Riviere (spelling?).  He was wishing everyone who walked by, all suited and bundled up scurrying to their hotel-looking apartments, a happy holiday.  We asked him if he wanted a blanket.  "God is good!" he responded.

That was the only blanket we handed out.

We continued down 15th street.  Another strange impulse caught me: the lighted trees in front of the Comcast building.  "I want to walk through them," I said to Rena.  So we turned down JFK.  Lo and behold, Andre and Joe.  We exchanged hugs, holiday greetings, and urgings to get somewhere warm.  (It was cold!)

As we passed through the silver blue trees, we observed those inside the Comcast building.  There was some ridiculous visual display (y'all who've been by there know what I mean).  Everyone was just gawking.  (I gawked a bit myself.)

Rena said to me later, "It bothers me... that they're also so consumed by money, basically, that they don't know what's going on behind them."

Behind them were Andre and Joe.  And beneath them were our brothers, who don't have the privilege to ignore anything.

To close off, we walked to City Hall, where Penn's prayer for Philadelphia remains as forgotten as our friends:

William Penn's Prayer for Philadelphia, 1684

"And Thou Philadelphia the virgin settlement of this province named before thou wert born, what care, what service, what travail have there been to bring thee forth and preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee. O that thou mayest be kept from the evil that would overwhelm thee, that faithful to the God of thy mercies in the life of righteousness, thou mayest be preserved to the end. My soul prays to God for thee that thou mayest stand in the day of trial, that thye children may be blest of the Lord and thy people saved by His power."