Dispatch: Portland, Oregon #3

We always return to the familiar, even after struggling to find and explore new places and ideas. And once again today I'm in the common experience of Starbucks, a common fleece-wearing man with a Apple laptop set in front of me as though I have something to scribble about. This particular Starbucks seems to be a gathering place for many people who are either (or both) slightly imbalanced and at least temporarily between residences. Even the crazy and the lost need an anchor.

There is a grand, lighted Christmas tree outside the window I'm looking through; it's a healthy looking conifer. The other trees in the area--leafless and deciduous--are also decorated with lights. I perhaps mistakenly find it ironic that the conifer will soon be mulch, and in the near future the deciduous group will be green again.

I woke up this morning and remembered something: today is the anniversary of my first day on the job at my first professional job. A cubicle seemed exciting then, though that it was in San Francisco certainly helped with that excitement. I actually think of that job often--something familiar. It was a good time, those four years in San Francisco, and I worked with some good, creative people. The cubicle I work in now, on the third floor of an office building in a dull suburb, is much less exciting. Or, I'll concede, the problem is that I am less exciting. 

Yesterday afternoon I saw Birdman, a movie that surprised me because I'd forgotten that it incorporates pieces of a Raymond Carver story ("What We Talk About When We Talk About Love") in both plot and theme. I first read that story when I worked in San Francisco, when smart and generous coworkers introduced me to writers of many types. I often return to Carver's stories, and references to him have appeared more than once in this blog. I've seen other movies based on Carver's works, including Everything Must Go and Shortcuts; both are worth watching. 

In a few days I'll have to return to my familiar suburban cubicle just as imbalanced though still not homeless. The stay here has been good.