“Interesting Times” by Judith Lewis California is considered to be the “quintessential Promised Land,” known for its golden opportunity to experience bigger and better things. The California Dream promises so many different things: The promise of wealth and success, cultural diversity, warmth and sunshine, romance and freedom, the glitz, and the glamour. This is what California is all about, well for the most part. We tend to forget the other dynamics that also contribute to what makes California, California, such as the hardships, for instance.
Otherwise the high crime rate, the gang violence, the overpopulation, the high cost of living and gas, etc. All of these influences contribute to what makes this place unlike any other place in the world and what makes it all the more special in the end. Some of these aspects of California may scare people from going to this place. However, it is the struggles that we endure and overcome that make this place worth living.
Similar to what we read in Rawl’s essay, these are the very factors that make California much more of an idealized paradox to live in. Without suffering, there would be no pleasure. Without pleasure, there would be no suffering. In Judith Lewis’s “Interesting Times,” she explains how her love and appreciation for this place has grown over the years for the reason that it is a place of paradoxes. Prior to arriving here, Lewis had heard of all of the bad myths associated with Los Angeles.Regardless, she learned to embrace all of the adversity in Los Angeles because it only made her stronger in the end.
She had gone through some of her greatest moments of her life in California, but also some of her toughest. Nevertheless, she learned to adapt to this fast-paced city and endure its hardships because that is what needs to happen in order to succeed here, which only made her feel more a part of the city and its people. In my opinion, both Lewis and Rawl would agree upon one thing.California is not anything like the Dream State; it is a place of mixed feelings. It has both its promises and its paradoxes, yet this is the very reason why it is such a remarkable and unique place to live in.
Lewis states, “After a decade, I have finally come to realize that Los Angeles has treated me well – not by allowing me a dramatic, luxurious existence, but by giving me a world to battle as much as I revel in it. It has given me a life in interesting times” (297).
