Lighten up

While I loved India, it feels so good to be back in sunny San Francisco. The weather is unusually good right now with the sun out and just a few clouds. Being back in town I raced to enjoy my favorite jaunts this morning – rising at the ungodly hour of 5am I enjoyed trash TV news for an hour and then headed to Le Boulange for my requisite quiche, coffee, and orange juice. Then, firing up the laptop and more trash news, I learned New York fashion week has made it’s way to San Francisco – yippea! Tonight Ft. Mason is housing a New Yorkian fashion show with stars (stars in my world anyhow) like Naomi and Marc.

In an attempt to happen by one of these named stars, I set out for a wakeup jog through Ft. Mason. Instead of stars I saw swarms of people all in black – it’s funny that fashionistas typical uniform is black. So Mission District.

Sophisticated
My mother, the never ending editor, called about my blog recently. “It’s all shopping,” she commented, “You should try to be more philosophical about life and not spend it away.” So, here’s a shot at a more sophisticated observative entry…

In life we’re trained from a young age to excel – be winners. Starting at a young age we’re put in groups based on how good we are – the “Cheetahs” for good readers in school and the “Kittens” or some other slower animal for those who can’t quite keep up.

During sports season we’re ranked on age, weight, speed, and agility and put in teams accordingly.

Then there’s the dances where the popular crowd are chosen as queens and kings and all the rest of us get to cheer in awe at how they can handle being head of the basketball team while getting straight As and mastering the best beer bong in the school.

College brings a whole new spat of measurement with sororities and fraternities where there are bigger, better parties and competitions.

All the competition bleeds into work in adulthood. There’s the everlasting game of blamestorming as people are quick to point the finger away from themselves when something goes wrong and proudly accept kudos when they’re given. This is a pessimistic view, of course, and there are plenty of people who practice the one-team philosophy and circle-back-pat whenever possible. I think these are the people who played team sports growing up.

On the streets we’re no better – edging to be the first off the line as lights turn green and trying to beat the bus when it pulls out into your lane. Always trying to be first, or get ahead.

We could learn a lot from the India psyche here – where, although traffic is no indicator of the inclusive spirit, everyone seems to have a vested interest in the lives of those around them.

What prompted this philosophizing? This morning when I was walking back home I got stuck behind a group of elementary students. It was funny seeing the pairings of kids as they walked – a small group where a girl kept pushing the boy in front of her leading him to turn and act irritated but blush at the same time, two girls in identical spandex pants and shirts, a group of bookworms all with overloaded backpacks – the list goes on. The one that stood out to me the most, though, was the 9 year old wearing low rider pants and a bright green jacket that read “Don’t Blame The Youth.” How can we, when they learn from watching us?