Chance = Change

For the first time in a few weeks, the sun is not shining here in our new home town, and I have to say I like it like this.  

First of all, it reminds me that I am not living in LA where there is rarely a day with anything but perfect blue skies, and after a while, such crystaline perfection gets even the doughtiest spirit down.  I used to feel ashamed if my spirit did not match the optimistic energies of that blue sky,and it made me feel even worse.

But the gracious San Francisco has the good sense to remind us that none of us is actually perfect, and that even the country's most beautiful city (she immodestly knows this is true about herself) has its days when mufti is the perfect thing.  She does look gorgeous in this soft , misty grey that cloaks her this morning.  And it makes me feel human. This is a town that measures us all to that human scale, and there is something about the water all around us that reminds one of where we come from, and that we all come from that same place.  The Bay and the Ocean, ubiquitous in these parts, reminds us that Life is liquid and changeable, and that we are all in the swim of it, no matter what else divides us. 

And where there is water, there is weather.

Weather is a large topic of daily discussion around San Francisco. It's behavior, it's seasonality, its moods, its rarities, its changeabilities, its quirks and its countenances are all things that people here love to tell other people about. Especially if the other people are newcomers to the city.

"Oh, you're lucky, it's not usually like this at this time of year," is a comment we have heard  a lot since moving here.

"Just wait 'til Summer ! That's when you'll have your Winter!" is another remark people feel it's their duty to repeat more than once.

"You don't want to live over there in Sunset or Richmond. It's foggy over there ALL the time! Well, mainly in the Summer. But no....too much fog!" plead some.

"Just remember, when it's 110 degrees elsewhere, here it's nice and COLD in the Summer."

"Never put away your Fall /Winter stuff because you never know when it'll be cool by the Bay"

"Important to keep all your coats and sweaters available all year long."

"If it's foggy in the morning, it blows away by noon."

Those are just a few of the many weather-related things that seem to pepper daily conversation here.

And I've just about decided that weather is like another character in the on-going comedy/drama that is San Francisco: an ever-prsent character that never leaves the stage and that influences all the other characters in subtle , unwritten ways.  I love this weather for that very presence.  

I seek it out. I speak to it. I am its sister.  I feel it and want it to guide me because it is so powerful, so true, so very itself, there is no other way but to relax in its powerful presence, go with it wherever it wants to take you.   And sunshine is just one of its guises. It's faces are many.  And, I like surprises.

Earthquakes are indeed part of its fashion repertoire, true. This scares me a little , and our little family of four discuss where we shall meet if we need to find each other when "it" happens - because I feel surely that "it" will happen sooner than later. But what better testimony to the power of this special "star" i our midst - this WEATHER - than its skill to upset the very ground we walk?   Isn't that we all wish to do as actors? Change the perspective, upset the norm, change peoples' orientation to their own lives by the work we do?  Take stage and shake things up?  Stars do that.  They have that particular power.

And here in this marvelous town, weather is , at the very least, a leading player.

I am a fan.

Adoringly,

Ev