Whole Earth?

Caught a ride to Davis last night to see a couple of bands perform at the annual Whole Earth Festival. On the way, we stopped at the quintessential Berkeley co-op, The Cheesboard, and listened to a great jazz trio (who always perform in the store) as we stood in line waiting for our garlic pesto choclo cilantro pizza.

I always enjoy going to Davis because it connects me with rural California, which is an amazingly short distance in any direction from the Bay Area metropolis. Nick worked his usual shift at Little Prague, 3pm til 3am, but I woke up when he came home at 4:30 and we talked for a while about our respective stations in life. I told him how after two and a half years of public school teaching a missing piece of my humanity has been restored - namely, the non-white piece. However, even though I've become a more understanding white person, and learned how to be an ally to non-whites, I am increasingly despondent about the fact that I am at the absolute top of the social ladder as a straight white male. This may sound like a conradiction, but I feel like I'm part of a woefully disconnected minority of people who are out of touch and out step with the rest of the peoples of the world. Straight white males are like overstretched empires and kings gone mad with greed, we sit alone on the throne in an empty castle while the rest of the world laughs (at us) and enjoys a life we're not capable of knowing. Maybe this is the source of my desire to learn other languages, travel, and be a part of other cultures. Maybe not. Probably a mix of reasons. Anyway, we agreed that the next step is to read Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities (recommended by Olivia when I explained to her my dilemma).

Now then, this realization doesn't mean I'm going to go around carrying the burden of white guilt. On the contrary, I'm going to continue being me and being open to all people I meet. Case in point: I took Amtrak back from Davis today and then got on the bus in Berkeley to go up University Ave to my apartment. After one stop, a man sat down next to me, and of course, I ignored him. Then he suddenly asked me how to get to campus, and if the bus would stop there, and it became apparent that he was a stranger in my town. I soon found out he had just arrived from India at 1am in the morning, and was in the USA for his very first time. As soon as he told me this, I grabbed his hand, shook heartily, and said, "Welcome to America!"
Keep in mind that ust a few weeks ago I invited a panel of immigrant students at Berkeley High to talk to my class, and they said they were miserable here, and that no one had ever given them a proper welcome, as they would have naturally done for any newcomer to their native communities.

The Indian man - whose name I asked but did not properly understand nor can remember - and I continued talking, and I told him a bit about Berkeley's political history. We got off at Telegraph Avenue and I walked him up to the student center. We shook hands again and he went off to meet his Indian friend, also a PhD student studying here for the summer. Small world, or whole earth?