Tabling on Sproul at Cal with @BillboardChris

And a trip down memory lane

Today I heard a rumor that @BillboardChris was going to be on UC Berkeley’s campus, so I decided to head over and see if I could join him in talking to randos on Sproul. I spent many years hanging out by Sather Gate, announcing to the world and the famous Yeshua shirt guy that I did not believe in their deities and was open to any evidence or arguments passers-by had to throw at me.

My other motivation was recruiting people who had been harmed by this or that religion into an anti-church which could provide the same social-emotional benefits of regular church attendance and membership in a congregation, with no expectation of believing ineffable faith tenets. This organization had been formed prior to my attendance, and I was fortunate at one point to be able to run it as president.

I met some of the most significant people of my life through this anti-church. It was my safe space and my social support network. And our antiproselytism involved setting up a table on Sproul with a sign and waiting for people to approach and attempt to persuade us, so we could practice being calmly unpersuadeable through the mighty power of logic and rules of evidence. Occasionally, we were persuaded, though never about logically incoherent concepts that defy explanation and substantiation.

It took me a bit to actually find Chris, and I nearly gave up, but ducking into a thrift store and finding this awesome skirt/hat combo and scoring some half-sugar boba milk tea renewed my lack of a spirit. Just then, I saw Chris emerge 8 inches above the average Cal student. I took off running and caught up. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around and talking to random people who came up to us. We also caught some flack, generally in the form of drive-by bird-flipping or a hissed “you SUCK!” One dude gave me hella bad vibes though. He came up and directly stated that he disagreed with the board. Some children could consent. Some children were very mature for their age. Check the hard drive, I say. I’ve been a young woman and I know that kind of man.

This trans-identifying young man in the photo was quite pleasant. He came up and wanted a photo and agreed to be in a photo with us. Chris asked if he wanted to have a conversation, and he agreed on the condition that it was about trains. The irony. Boy, was he in luck. Turns out we’re both huge fans of Amtrak and know a lot of random facts and stories we spent the next several minutes exchanging. We also ran into this woman just before I had to get going. She clearly got some relief from being able to state out loud, without fear of backlash, her actual thoughts on the subject. It was an overall great experience tagging along for Chris’ last day at Cal for this trip.

While I was looking for Chris, I decided to take a tour of my old haunts. Here I am standing next to Strawberry Creek. I used to come here with my late love and in the wake of the loss I came here for a few ghost dates as well. Enough time has passed that I can enjoy the space and the memories without becoming overwhelmed. I just feel like I’m home. The warmth of the connection eventually outpaces the sadness of the loss. It will be 7 years in July.

Here is the library called Moffitt where I worked as a Turkish translator my last year of school. For $10.26/hour, they got a good deal.

Here is Dwinelle Hall, where I first watched one of my favorite movies, Hiroshima, Mon Amour, and where atheist anti-church met weekly.

This place had the best fresh-squeezed orange juice and a quote by Mario Savio, which I always read as Salvo, on the wall that I read enough times it sank in. This Savio quote from my alma mater has been a salve to my soul more than once.

“There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.” - Mario Salvo

The Valley Life Sciences Building with the dinosaur skeleton inside.

This is not the Eshleman that was there when I was a student. It’s an imposter. They tore down the real one because it would not have survived “the big one” (earthquake). I worked as a professional notetaker for a bit through this building, and we also stored our table and signs here.

Bonus shot of Strawberry Creek!

And, of course, “Furries of Berkeley.”