Fog over 'Frisco

In the background: Caring is Creepy (Oh, Inverted World Album), by The Shins



I recently finished reading Middlesex, a brave and commendable novel by Jeffrey Eugenides - author previously made famous by his pilot novel adapted for the big screen, The Virgin Suicides. While there are numerous reviews for the aforementioned book in most corners of print materials and indexed pages online - mostly raves, to which I nod my head in accordance - there were certain sections that struck me as poignant correlations to my (already skewed) perspective.

Towards the last few chapters, Eugenides' protagonist, Cal Stephanides speaks of San Francisco in such detail that I stop for a second and remember having seen that fog over one of my favorite cities for the first time:

"Every morning, a great wall of fog descents upon the city of San Francisco. It begins far out at sea. It forms over the Farrallons, covering the sea lions on their rocks, and then it sweeps onto Ocean Beach, filling the long green bowl of Golden Gate Park. The fog obscures the early morning joggers and the lone practitioners of tai chi. It mists up the windows of the Glass Pavillion. It creeps over the entire city, over the monuments and movie theaters, over the Panhandle dope dens and the flophouses in the Tenderloin. The fog covers the pastel Victorian mansions in Pacific Heights and shrouds the rainbow-colored houses in the Haight. It walks up and down the twisting streets of Chinatown; it boards the cable cars, making their clanging bells sound like buoys; it moves in on the Mission, where the mariachi players are still asleep; and it bothers the tourists. The fog of San Francisco, that cold, identity-cleansing mist that rolls over the city every day, explains better than anything else why that city is what it is.... and in such anonymity, personal change was that much easier."

Coincidentally, this part of the novel came to me at a time when decisions need to be made. I am well aware that in the months that will follow, a move towards that change - whatever choice it might be - will ensue. Our lives are but lists of pros and cons when it comes to paths we (often times deliberately) invariably take on.

Carole King could not have said it better: "Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?"