FRIDAY FIVE
Going into 2022, one of our collective intentions was to consciously, actively practice additional gratitude exercises that centered around living in San Francisco. We wanted to start this string of journal entries in January, mind you. But there’s this funny thing called “life” that has a proclivity for getting in the way of premeditated plans.
Yes, we bemoan SF’s problems — its nose-bleedingly high rents, how it’s handled the thousands of residents experiencing homelessness, the war on drugs currently underway in the Tenderloin, etc. — but we still very much love this place. That feeling of general alignment, too, is no more evident than when we return from somewhere else in the country. Or the world, for that matter.
Our pull to archiving our gratitude for San Francisco goes beyond an SEO essential. These documented lists — “volumes,” if you will — will exist as digital touchstones for us to revisit whenever we’re feeling, say, less than grateful; far from content; away from a centered place that smiles when images of the Golden Gate Bridge glow through an LCD screen.
Because yes, this metropolis can be as maddening as it is beguiling. But it’s our home; we, truly, can’t think of anywhere else we’d rather see out the rest of our days on this mortal coil.
So here’s to you, San Francisco! We love you for all that you are.
For this bout of thankfulness, we’re particularly appreciative of your outdoor splendors organized inside a concrete jungle that’s inhabited by some 880,000 fascinating weirdos.
Staircases (that make for great hiking)
San Francisco is home to dozens of walkable outdoor staircases that range in all manner of beauty and utility. While some help bipeds ascend to gorgeous vistas and navigate through dense urban jungles, others simply exist to connect one street to another.
Even though Pittsburgh apparently has the most staircases of any major American city, we’re pretty confident that ours are hella prettier.
Karl The Fog; Karla The Fog; [heart emoji] both
We value living in a city where an atmospheric anomaly is so personified that it might as well be sent a mail-in ballot for every local election. Better yet: What a treat it is to have not one, but two social media avatars for it.
There will forever be room for both Karla The Fog and Karl The Fog in the seven-by-seven — and anyone suggesting otherwise just…. they just don’t get it.
Pianos and petunias
Rhythmically swaying while letting your cochleas reverberate from the sounds of Flower Piano, which held its sixth iteration this past summer in Golden Gate Park, should be considered a fundamental activity for all San Franciscans to partake in annually. Even just walking through the dirt paths — all of which are banded by a collection of both cultivated native and non-native flora — through the SF Botanical Gardens, soundtracked by live-playings of Mozart feels like a diving experience.
You could even say there’s a soft joy germinated from the whole affair.
Community gardens that offer more than just sun-ripened tomatoes
San Franciscans take their urban gardening practices seriously. That sentiment is no more evident than inside the city’s smattering of community gardens. They provide sustenance, sure—but these neighborhood green spaces also afford those who frequent them moments of blissful solitude amid a bustling Bay Area city.
South American parrots fill the city with exotic jungle energies
One of our editors recounts when they moved into a new apartment… and mistook the squawking of a mated pair of invasive conures for fighting cats. These birds — with their emerald green plumage and firetruck-red feathers crowning their heads — are gorgeous, for sue. But, just like the hundreds of other non-native species that call the Bay Area home, they don’t belong here (and have caused a fair amount of ecological harm.)
Nevertheless, they’re here to stay; those vociferous calls aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon. Plus, they’re so very fucking cute to observe doing their comical parrot antics.
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