Soon, it will be a year since we moved to Seattle. This is my story of what I experienced living in Seattle. It is about the people, the place, the systems, the seasons and the similarities, the differences, the mundane, the shocking, all wrapped in one.
Hope, is the word that has resonated many a time in the past one year. That it did purely because life in the northwest exhibits a cycle of life that can be so vividly felt and experienced. Summer, autumn, winter and spring, they bring alive the waxing and waning rhythms of life so well that one cannot help but see hope everywhere. How everything that is bright and shining in summer, fades in autumn, then crawls inwards in winter and come spring, bounces back to life. From birds, animals to plants. Just seeing this is so invigorating. It is like being born every year and it can only mean one thing, every year is a new chance to start afresh!
The people, I am still figuring that one. There are times I feel, we are all similar. We have the same anxieties, trepidations, we rejoice for the same reasons. The mixture of behaviors is the same, some competitive, some withdrawn, some exuberant, some pensive, some lonely, some with lovely families. Friendships and relationships can be built if you find similarities in interests and make the effort. It is such a great place to learn about so many cultures of the world, starting with the American. Just hearing so many languages being spoken around is somehow so exhilarating.
But the biggest differentiator is the law, the system. People respect it and actually fear it. That makes them behave differently. They are so bound by rules and the consequences can be so detrimental, that invariably they are cautious. In any professional context, like in a school, workplace, restaurant, if you are looking for an apartment or any other similar situation, conversations will always be held with the thought that one does not want to end up saying something that can get them sued! It is true and this can be a bit confusing and annoying sometimes. Be wary, the subtleties of reading between lines and reading expressions is something you will have to learn. The other factor that also probably is the reason for their extreme vigilance is that this place is an amalgamation of so many cultures. One can easily offend someone unknowingly and so it is better to err on the side of caution. On the other hand, I was also shocked to see rules being broken like littering, spitting and minor brawls in public. You know, we think that never happens in America ;) Well, humans are humans!
It is interesting to also see how people from almost every country in the world live alongside each other yet form groups or friends within their nationality mostly. Then there are Americans with lineages from so many countries and you can never figure that out unless you get to know the person. In fact every American loves to identify as 1/8th this, 1/4 that and 5/8th that!!!! It can be confusing in the beginning but it is so intriguing and amazing actually. It is a rarity to find someone who is one hundred percent a certain ethnicity!
I can't end this paragraph without talking about, value of a human life or life in general. This is a bit of conundrum actually. I am still trying to figure out how it came to be. For instance wild life, pets and people are so precious here that the government takes extreme steps to take care of them. Safety is of utmost importance and everything is designed with that in mind. National parks are preserved and rescue systems are so efficient. Even minute things are meticulously planned. Signs that will do all the thinking for you are ubiquitous. That is one side of the coin, the flip side is they just don't value the life that actually sustains us, food. The way they grow crops on such a large scale or raise cattle is short of being repulsive. The sheer quantity of food everywhere is shameful. From serving portions in restaurants to portions that are sold in stores are clearly meant to encourage obesity and wastefulness. It is simply not normal for an average healthy human to consume so much. Further on the gross treatment of cattle or fish is so lowly, I sometimes can't believe that this is part of the same system. In the name of making life easy everything is packaged, frozen or ready to eat. Then there are these movements now, of growing and eating local, organic, I mean, it sounds so ludicrous sometimes. The idea is great but that is another extreme of growing so little and making it a fad than some real innovation which can change the way people, of all economic backgrounds, think and consume food. Someone really needs to step in and change that in this country. Seriously they need to reinvent food here.
Moving on, coming from such a diverse country as India, I have to add this tiny bit. I haven't travelled much but the little that I have, the homogeneity is surprising. The roads, the outlets, the language, the food are more or less the same. Yes, I know there are differences too but it is so little that as an Indian I feel something missing :) The accent may be different, they may have slightly different cuisines but culturally they are more or less the same. They dress alike, they speak the same language, they celebrate the same festivals. Of course, I maybe wrong here as I have not travelled much. But at least the system is everywhere. The same garbage trucks, the same school buses, the same grocery outlets, the same road signs. Even in the remotest corner, they will be part of the same system. The best part of that system, the public libraries. You have to experience it. The sheer number of books at your disposal, heaven on earth! What does change? Landscapes, beautiful, diverse and preserved so well.
A friend observed that the greatness of this country is in its ability to plan for its citizens for the next hundred years or more and another friend noted that the only mismatch is that the citizens don't plan their lives for more than a day :)
They call this place the land of opportunities. That is true, they sure have avenues to learn and practice every conceivable profession. But I would also say it is the land that teaches you to be competitive, confident, ambitious and entices you to join the rat race. If you love that, you can make it big, really big. Else you can still live a decently good life and work hard to stay in the game.
Finally, I really don't miss anything from India! There are more than plenty Indians and anything that you can buy in India, you can buy here. What I sorely miss, family, friends in India and mangoes ;)