Tucson at Night


This is a second view from Tumamoc Hill. It was night before I finished walking down, with all the city lights shining.

What made a deeper impression on me than the dazzling view of Tucson (but what I did not attempt to paint) was the stream of walkers, winding down the mountain with little flashlights. There was something very poignant about it, and beautiful - the road defined by hand-held lights and the dim illumination of surrounding features where they passed. What had been a crowd of people exercising became something more intimate, almost private. It seemed like a procession of souls, and I suspect that many of us, having gone up and started down, having seen the views and seen each other, hushed by exhaustion or by the dimming light, felt an altered sense of who we are, an invisible bond as our bodies became less visible, the darkness around us deepened, and small points of illumination became everything.