A wide, one-way street runs between Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. On a Sunday in early July, it fills with sunlight.
Nate, Jon, and I had skipped the morning sessions to wait in a long snake of a line outside of Voodoo Doughnuts, and I'd spent the remaining forty-five minutes before the lunch break trying not to eavesdrop on a conversation about technology, theology, and business that Chris Brogan was having with some friends.
When I walked outside on Southwest Broad, which was blocked off for WDS, I saw something unusual. Keep in mind that unusual sights become usual at the World Domination Summit 2013. But I couldn't help but stare as a man with a shaved head and bushy eyebrows bound together the feet of a younger man in a wheelchair. This scene, which later became an experience and not simply another snapshot or postcard, caused an eddy in the flow of foot traffic.
Benedict, the one in the wheelchair, was pensive. He watched Slade work, and for his part, Slade finished with the string with quiet confidence, as though he were in the regular habit of tying up strangers.
They were strangers, I learned later, and that was significant, considering what happened next.
Keep Reading