Summer has always been associated with reading and a slower pace of life in general for me. I had summers where it has been always gray and rainy, end of which marked a once-good friend's return to Antalya and burning the bridges of a possible academic career. The weather affects some people more than the others, even if you're among the spiritual ones who believe in the inner climate's effects on the outer. If your inner light is on, it can stay on regardless of the weather outside, right? Well, nope! :)
After experiencing incredibly frustrating delays at the airports in early summer, I decided to spend it in California and not fly at all, period. I managed it quite well as we're about to say goodbye to October, which makes it 4 months of non-flying, which is nothing compared to the time spent socializing with yourself and your pod(!) outdoors for almost 2 years.
California as one of the biggest states of the US has a lot to offer for all kinds of people unlike the common belief that it's only for the rich. God has been very generous with it sparing the occasional natural disasters that remind people of their mortality and vulnerability regardless of the statistics or the power of the economy that California boasts about. So many small towns by the coast are to me previews of what Paradise might be like in another dimension. Ventura, Santa Barbara, Ojai... you name it!
I met several people who declared mental bankruptcy in California (born and raised or came for grad studies and for business, stayed for 2 decades at least and then crash boom bang!) They cannot even stand it, which is a clear indication of not taking good care of their inner climate and searching for places to escape elsewhere. What a privilege! You cannot imagine the number of young people who run to the East Coast for college and then off to explore the rest of the world after getting their diploma.
I don't come from a background where I can have the luxury to say "I've got a nice place to retire and spend the rest of my life in a small shack" (California has very simple and small houses too). Do you? I was rather pissed off when someone whom I met at the Berkeley Public Library happened to like me a bit too much and kept on communicating. I finally had to say let's give a break to these 'exchanges' especially after listening to his queries about moving to Turkey if Trump wins the elections the second time. I witnessed other liberal people with means who prepared their escape plans -mostly to Europe- if Trump got reelected. The less adventurous ones with small kids to Canada. The problem is it is clear that they are not watching the local news and the intellectuals of the culture that they're hoping for a new start. Sometimes, they are so blinded that all I can do is to listen to them and keep quiet about the content matter.
There are many advantages of straddling between two cultures and continents if you can be at home in both or neither. I am far from romanticizing it but I can also identify rather quickly people who have not lived or worked abroad from the ones who did. Bonding with the ones who chose to remain afloat with loose but strong roots (like waterlilies maybe?) is easier for me in comparison to the ones who cling on to one particular culture or identity as they cannot feel at home in multiple places or keep an everlasting longing or nostalgia (and that really drives me cray!):)
I'm on my way to the Bay Area where I've always felt at home despite the fickle weather. I will probably get teary again as the plane lands on the SFO and I take out my clipper card to beat the rush hour traffic and the forced dialogue between the uber driver and I. Aylin is the only friend who never lacks uber-driver stories and always tips them generously regardless of their attitude.
I cannot believe the sun season is over and I don't want to leave the sunny and slow pace of life, that is my extended summer of 2022. No need to talk about business or failed or aborted job applications that happened within the same period of time. It was summer after all and so many people are still in post-covid-recovery period. There is envy if not confusion when I tell people that I'm working while traveling and as a free-lancer. I know it cannot continue forever but... One never knows! If you love something you love it never feels like "work" anyways, does it?
