When thoughts crisscross and collide in Bill Walton's mind like a pre-pandemic morning commute on Interstate 8, books and music routinely become the traffic cops between his ears.
Disrupt even more by throwing in a global health crisis, economic calamity and nationwide racial unrest and it's as if Walton is trying to land a monster truck in a clogged passing lane.
Asked to frame what he felt and where his thoughts wandered when his native La Mesa was engulfed by looting, rioting and flames Saturday, the 67-year-old basketball Hall of Famer leaned on Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" to untangle all those emotional taillights.
"How many times?" Walton said.
In the 1963 song, Dylan offered questions as relevant and resonant now as nearly a half-century ago.
How many times must the cannon balls fly, before they're forever banned?
How many times can a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn't see?
How many times can a man look up, before he really sees the sky?
Walton was in La Mesa on Saturday to link his eyes with a bruised heart. He returned Tuesday to soak up the warming scenes of cleanup and resilience in the place where his basketball odyssey took flight at Helix High School.
All those thoughts and not a turn signal in sight.
"I'm heartbroken, but I still have hope," Walton said. "I have hope because of California. I have hope because of San Diego. I have hope because of so many people I know working constantly to make things better. Not this, 'We'll get to this later. We're going too fast.' We can't go fast enough."
To Walton's thinking, the country's crisis rages along two battle lines: leadership and living rooms. To Walton's sorting, there is no Switzerland as people select paths.
"La Mesa is our world today," he said. "All control was lost. This is going to take everything we have to come together and move beyond this. It's going to take everybody, because these are foundational issues. This is going to take restructuring on every level.
"I stand with the protesters. I stand with the demonstrators who are trying with everything they can to make real change."
Protesters, not looters. Activism, not militarism. Walton is about the message, not uncaring mayhem.
"That's how things change _ and we need real change," Walton said of peaceful marches. "I deplore racism. I deplore police brutality. I also deplore violence. We have to listen. We have to learn. We have to act. That starts on the individual level."
Walton became nearly as famous for storming against the Vietnam War as becoming one of the greatest college players of all time and NBA champion. Hunting his heart? Find his sleeve.
The staunch supporter of his hometown immerses himself in a dizzying amount of charitable causes. There is almost no corner of San Diego untouched by the generosity of him and his wife, Lori.
Seeing La Mesa bleed? You bet it's personal.
Walton said he recently reread "Profiles in Courage," the book by late President John F. Kennedy. He began connecting dots. He seethed.
"The theme of the book was people who did things for the betterment of the team," he said. "That's the world and culture I grew up in and tried to foster every day in my own life. In the executive branch of the federal government, we have gone to profiles in cowardice, corruption, divisiveness, betrayal, hypocrisy, denial, anger and hatred."
When it was mentioned there is a single person leading the executive branch, Walton confirmed that is where his thoughts wandered without specifically using the name of the current president.
"Leadership starts at the top," Walton said. "People are dying for buying a pack of cigarettes, for jogging, for sleeping in their own bed. It's an endless list. It's unacceptable. Pull the team together. We have to change. Talk is cheap. Vision is true.
"The underlying causes can be traced back to the disastrous inequality in everything in our lives and world _ wealth, health, housing, employment, education, the environment, judicial. Silence is complicity. Silence is collaboration.
"An election is coming up. I want to see the greatest voter turnout in history."
Walton paused. Dylan re-entered.
"How many times?" he said. "How many times?"
There's no doubt Walton's politics polarize many. To some, he's a hippie who never surrendered the headband. To him, it's simply a matter of stumping for people and peace.
The fact he speaks from a deeper and more thoughtful place, however, defies debate.
"There's a difference between listening and hearing," Walton said. "The level of understanding and compassion that is needed, the level of empathy, the level of sympathy, the generosity of spirit. It's all of our responsibility, every moment of every day.
"The action we take today can change the course of history."
How many times?
