„You’re crazy and such a pro!“

A jetty on Cowichan Lake. It’s gray and overcast, the clear water looks cold. Steve and Carter are only bothered by it for a moment. They are far too busy. They jump off the dock, dive, snort, shout, laugh, outdo each other. Best friends. They’re often at the lake, passing the afternoon. They don’t need much to do it. Two small nets, two large diving goggles and a plastic pincher with a handle and a lick. They catch young lobster fish. „Got another one.“ They are as excited as the boys. Steve shows his bloody pinched thumb, the critters fascinate him. Then the little animals are quickly maneuvered back into the water and right away it’s back underwater for the catchers as well – the game starts all over again.

They are nothing but carefree, exuberant children on this afternoon. Nothing and nobody disturbs them. They’ll think about it when they’re standing on the dock someday and have other things on their mind. It will be their faded image of a perfect summer afternoon. Submerge themselves and be happy.

Lake Cowichan, 7.9.2017

„When the rain makes bubbles in the puddle it will last“.

Chance and rain drive us to the only laundromat in Pemberton. We are not alone there. A small Pacman machine repeats short colorful flashing „1942“ scenes to coax the precious washing machine change from us. The faces of many already deceased movie stars gaze down on our dirty laundry, accurately framed in rows between hanging plants. Glamour, adoration, Hollywood. Those were the days for film. Film was also where Leandre worked. Former scenery builder, now prefers script writer. He loves classical music and knows the names that go with it. Everything about him is beige. Even the old Volvo, which he has parked prudently next to the big puddle in front of the laundromat. The beige clashes with his soft French accent. A souvenir from Quebec. He steers the conversation, places names and intellectual trains of thought, and then gets to the subject that makes his face brighten a little more than the desire to one day see the Berlin Symphony Orchestra play: Gnosis. He could go on talking about it for a long time and next week he also gives a lecture in Pemberton about Gnosis, we are welcome and are handed the same flyer as on the bulletin board.

Pemberton, 17.9.2017

Taffys Twoonie Town (Dollar Store with self painted sign)

The Fraser River cuts through the landscape and from a distance the houses seem to have been thrown onto the long road. The mountain backdrop framing the valley seems almost oversized in comparison, as if to point out over and over again that nature was there first, proudly stretching directly a little higher. „Lillooet.“ It takes a while for the tongue to feel more comfortable pronouncing it.

If you want to get to know Lillooet, it’s best to drive down the one main street at a leisurely pace, park about halfway and then walk. Once up and once down. Otherwise, you’ll miss the details that make this street worth seeing. On this late afternoon, chance, in a fit of tidiness, has atmospherically placed the same car paint colors in front of the facade colors. Three red cars in front of the rear exit of the dark red motel with the thick torn plastic curtains, or two beige older models in front of the light brown Asian-Canadian snack bar with neon lights. Blue to blue, even purple to purple.

Autumn suits Lillooet – a little weary and sighing but not moping but pausing for a moment. Just like that.

Lillooet, 19.9.2017

„There are worse places than Santa Cruz to be stuck while your car gets fixed.“ (Tom, allegedly)

A man with a green parrot named Honey. Supposedly his name is Tom, but he thought too long when I asked him. The young man with the guitar and the mike at the Lighthouse is playing. Again. Still? The man with the go-cart and the bull skull. The girl with the fire rings. The rollerblader with dumbbells. Drummers and flutists. Climbing over the fence and then not coming back well. Sitting in the car and looking at the sea – or into the cell phone.

Our van gave up on the way back from Big Sur and needs a new radiator. So we are stranded for another day. Like many nomads here, stranded longer. Walking on the railroad tracks, living. Where it’s mild all year. Standing out without standing out. Being special. Being remembered. Like the surfers on the plaques and bumper stickers. What’s left.

Santa Cruz, 6.11.2017

„Google me!“ (Tour guide, Hollywood)

We’re in LA, and we realize it. Our tourist bus driver is one of the dancers from the opening scene of La La Land. „Google me!“ At the next table, an author is on the phone talking about his story. Always in business.

Like the Uber drivers. Uber, Lyft, whatever. Everyone here is an entrepreneur. Always in business. They almost all drive Toyotas. America First. Ryan drives me to Staples Center, the Lakers are playing. His girlfriend is from ‚Schtuddgard‘. Everyone knows someone or is from Germany, somehow.

There are e-scooters for rent all over the streets. And so the scooters provide other jobs, unappreciated jobs, even worse jobs than Uber drivers. Scooter redistributors, or whatever they may be called. The people who arrange things so it’s convenient. Mexicans? Immigration, that’s what.

Everywhere you look there are these jobs that are not visible. One morning it seems to be garden day, there is work going on in almost every garden in the neighborhood. But never by the owner. And it’s groundhog day on Laurel Avenue. Where the gardeners weren’t yesterday, they are today. A car pulls out of a driveway, next day, same scene. Sparkling clean cars are parked on the street, washed as if by magic. Parked to be washed, discreetly booked, without direct contact. At the same time in the service society, where everything is as pleasant as possible. Like the small talk.

Los Angeles, 4.10.2018

„The things you own end up owning you.“ (Tyler Durden)

The comfort of everyday life is back. The space, the things. How can the precious time be transferred, saved into everyday life? Probably not at all. The attitude can be saved, perhaps, but it will fade, without renewal.

The certainty of needing almost nothing. But only to think that we need something – on the basis of a social image, a supposed promise. Nothing should be like that because it is like that. But because one wants it to be.

We were out for far too short a time. Once you start, it can go on indefinitely. Only the first step is difficult, then the journey quickly becomes everyday life. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an insurance clerk, a doctor, an advertiser or a dropout. Everyday life has us all. We have met many people who are also somehow out. Homeless people, young and old. Seniors, Winter Birds, people who live only in mobile homes. Some rich, many rich in experience. But is that what it’s all about? To work towards then having options in old age?

And yet it’s still there, somewhere. The courage. An attitude of accepting supposed danger. To act against fear. To free yourself from what others might think about you is enlightening. It makes one equanimous.

In the end, we’re all just gone.