"Dusk was
a huge weird phosphorescent beast
dying slowly out across the bay."
- Robert Hass
is the American Dream unraveling?
thank you @americangrain for this article from FT - it’s a damning assessment of the current state of the country and Washington’s role.
the below excerpt sums up the issues that provoked me into this project:
“America now boasts of an unmatched plutocracy – or what one observer dubbed a “plutonomy”, given the growing role billionaires play in politics. Below them is an increasingly large floating world of the former and semi-middle class, who have lost the security their parents once had. Concern about a permanently divided America is not confined to the left, or the centre. Charles Murray, the conservative commentator, talks about a new “cognitive elite” that lives in “SuperZips” (the richest zip codes) far removed in sight and habit from those less fortunate. People on all sides of the spectrum admit that America’s egalitarian creed looks increasingly hollow. “America is a society that is starting to belie its promise as a land of equal opportunity in which the place you were born was not as important as the talents you were born with,” says Lawrence Katz.”
when I read this it feels so… depressing. are we on a path of no return?
so here we are
i first took off in my truck traveling last August. I had come to a point in my career where I had to figure out what was next and as I looked around at all the “next” options, nothing got my heart humming.
then I got this idea to buy a truck and just drive. and once I had that idea, that was it. there was really no going back because even though it was scary and very “what the hell are you doing”, I knew that if I didn’t I would never forgive myself. so off I went.
and it was glorious.
I fell in love with America. hot damn this country is huge and beautiful and filled with some really good people (and some really horrid people, but hey, nothing’s perfect). for the first time in my life I realized that life can be pretty huge if you let it. and yes, even though it’s super cliche and very eat, pray, love (ugh), I learned a lot about me. I realized that I had been blindly racing down this path. the path was fun, I’m grateful for it and people that it brought into my life, but it wasn’t making the space for calm or contentment or real creativity. and I have a hunch that there’s something more than that path.
(not that I am anywhere near figuring out what that “something more” exactly looks like. snort.)
so I knew I would go out on the road again, but instead of wandering aimlessly (which was awesome and I highly recommend it), this time I’m taking on a little project, digging into what the American Dream looks like today.
i’m so frickin’ excited. i’m terrified.
i don’t know how to work a camera. i get shy when approaching strangers. i have visions of me coming back with hours and hours of footage that is just absolute shit. i might get bored. but screw it, here we go.
