It has been 2 days now that I am in San Francisco, my very first visit to the United States of America. I have enjoyed walking around in this city: the beautiful old houses with the steps going up to the front door (I’m staying in a B&B like that – absolutely gorgeous!), the refurbished cable trams, the steep streets, the parks and the waterfront. Of course, the blue skies and abundantly shining sun accentuates her beauty. The habitants are also very proud of their city and you can note that a lot of efforts go into keeping it beautiful.
I got to learn a bit about the inside of life in San Francisco by talking to the people who live here.
The driver who picked me up at the airport told me he was not born and raised in San Francisco. ‘Seldom someone is, many come from somewhere else’. He observed San Francisco is in most cases a transitional city; people come, spend a few years but end up fleeing the city. Too expensive. He reckons I made an excellent choice though by choosing San Francisco. ‘It’s a nice city, people are friendly, very liberal, Trump would not dare set a foot here’.
He agrees with the saying ‘Land of Opportunity’ but also remarks somewhat bitterly that if you are sick or do not work, life is rather bleak.
The owners of the B&B I am staying in, seem to be an exception in the sense that they have lived in the very same house for 35 years. But they have travelled a lot and it has changed their lives. Ever since, no rat race for them anymore. Today they enjoy spending their old days receiving people from everywhere in the world at their home. It is half a day of work for each of them and it pays for the up keeping of the house.
Then there was the guy sitting across of me during lunch today. He used to be homeless and addicted to hard drugs but managed to get himself out of that painful and difficult period of his life. He never got rid of his old demons completely (do we ever?), ‘hurray for legalised marijuana that helps me sleep’, but he sure was beaming today. Seeing familiar faces around him from the time he was still homeless, he realised how amazing his path has been. ‘It feels like being reborn’.
He regrets though that people do not look beyond his exterior. ‘I like listening to dark music and I dress in black too. People misjudge me because of that’. He feels he must explain/justify himself all the time.
America. The land of the free. The land of opportunity. Work hard, become rich. Yesterday, May 1st – Labour Day, is not celebrated here. ‘We are not celebrating the workers by taking a day off, imagine that, this is the land of capitalism!’.
It seems to me that there is a downside to the ‘American Dream’ though. If you were born under an unlucky star or you are not strong enough physically or mentally or you do not ‘fit in’, this land seems particularly unfree and more the land of adversity. And the American Dream, just a dream.