Life of Wry

I experienced a pleasant and moving morning with Vicki as we participated in the Davis Day of Reflection, organized by the University in partnership with the City. We walked a ~4.5 mile loop that started and ended at Sycamore Park (where Karim Abou Najm, a 20-year old student, was murdered in late April). We spent a long time at the Compassion Corner Earthbench to honor David Breaux (murdered two days before Karim while sleeping on a bench in Central Park). Along the way, we passed dozens of signs placed to mark the route and offer mental health messages, and reflection stations strategically located that invited people to share reflections and remember people they’d lost. I think the whole thing was nominally about honoring David and Karim, but I also think it was more generally about mental health awareness. We are certainly a community traumatized by two senseless murders, and the attempted murder of another woman (Kimberlee Guillory, unhoused, sleeping in a tent near the railroad tracks). I believe the UCD Health folks thought it timely to engage the community in an activity that would focus on mental health.

We started here.. in Sycamore Park. This is the spontaneous memorial that has been in place since Karim’s death:

Karim..

These are what the signs along the way looked like..

The Compassion Corner Earthbench has been covered and cleaned up (in an appropriate way) several times over. Here are a couple remembrances that sat today on the bench…

Some stations provided ribbons for people’s thoughts, which were hung on trees (for example); the one at 3rd and C provided sticky notes. People here (including me) answered the question, “how can you bring hope to others.”

Ran into lots of folks, including Maria (David’s sister), Robb and Carrie (from our organizing and David celebrating days) and a number of friends. It was just lovely to hang out at the corner.

[Note: the picture at the top is a rock painted with David’s image that sits besides the bench… very nice!]