The Love Songs of J. Alfred Lionsgate

Vancouver is a lovely city, whose denizens have some oddly endearing habits … like planting trees on top of buildings, and letting raccoons wander the paths …

It also appears that they have some seriously overweight bicyclists …

More to the point, however, there’s a lovely bridge called the “Lion’s Gate Bridge” that connects Vancouver and West Vancouver, which I walked in both directions in the last few days. It is a very tall, beautiful bridge that looks a lot like the Golden Gate Bridge only done in green. Here’s a shot of it in the smoke that has accompanied our whole trip …

And another look on the clearer day when I walked it …

And like the Golden Gate, the Lion’s Gate has obviously been the scene of numerous suicides over the years. I say obviously because at both ends of the bridge and in the middle, they have the official response to the suicides—a telephone linking to a suicide crisis center. Here’s the one in the middle of the bridge … and yes, it’s a long, long way down to the water.

OK, fair enough, glad to see the Government doing something. But what was really impressive is that on every second or third post on the bridge railing, different people have taped up drawings and words to speak out to those thinking of ending their lives.

So without further preamble, I offer to you the Love Songs of J. Alfred Lionsgate, the response of the Vancouver public to the suicides, the cards taped to the bridge to reach out to those in danger of losing the fight.

The cards are small, too small to see from a car, but clearly visible to someone walking up to the highest point of the bridge and considering taking the express elevator straight down to the water …

Some of them have quotations, real or imagined.

But all of them are heartfelt pleas for some unknown and unloved person to not take that first step … and it’s a very long step …

Some tend to the humorous …

But all of them have the same serious caring purpose, whether it is crudely put forth …

… or it is carefully written.

Now, I have to say, if I saw any of these as memes on the web, or as cross-stitched samplers in someone’s house, I’d dismiss them and think “Schmaltz. Feel-good piffle. Sweet nonsense!”.

But out on the Lion’s Gate bridge, these were not anything of the sort. They were all tiny love songs in the sunlight, representing the best of humanity—our compassion for the lost, the lonely, the scared, the least among us …

And all of them were highlighted and given meaning by the starkness of the scene, the awful drop below, the beauty of the day, and the ultimate finality of the possible choice …

I finally realized that the thing that gave them strength and the thing that gave them pathos was the same—these were the very words that the authors had said to themselves to get them through their own hard times. They held meaning to the authors beyond guessing, and the authors had taken the time to write them up and draw them up as a perfectly anonymous gift from the heart to someone that they had never met and never would meet.

And as a result, they contain a power that no meme could ever have.

I took a lot more pictures, there were many more of them, too many to post, but let me leave you with one final thought, one that certainly spoke to me …

Those, dear friends, are just some of the anonymous Love Songs of J. Alfred Lionsgate, a tribute to the compassionate best of the humanity in all of us …

… and meanwhile, on the other side of Vancouver, life goes on its merry mad way.

Tonight we’re back in Washington, still in the smoke. A freight train goes by, calling my name to come and ride, a voice from another time … what a truly astounding planet this is.

My very best to all of you, and whatever you do … don’t jump …

w.