California
Information:
- Source: Hello World Notebook
- Key: D Major / B Minor
- Measures: 49
- Parts: Cello and Piano
- Duration: 3 Min
- Pages: 4 Pages
It is a place where you dream that you are dreaming while remaining awake.
ANOTHER GALAXY #
If I had been able to choose the place and the era in which I wanted to be born, I am certain the result would have been a strange mixture of countries and periods in history. Mongolia at the end of the nineteenth century would have been nice, or Iceland today would be a perfect place.
That is why, if I honestly consider the different places and events unfolding in the world today, I find myself wishing I had been born in another galaxy, as far away from humanity as possible. Although I am tempted to say that, if I absolutely had to choose somewhere on Earth, Paraguay might be a good candidate.
THE UNITED STATES OF MEXICO #
For whatever reason, I happened to be born in the United States of Mexico, a country that, politically speaking, is supposed to keep its distance from God, just as its 1917 Constitution proclaims. Fortunately for the United States, but perhaps less fortunately for Mexico, the two countries ended up sharing a border.
And so the prevailing sentiment among Mexicans can sometimes sound like a rather confused lament: poor Mexico, so far from a God they constantly reshape to suit their own purposes, yet so close to the United States, a country many are perfectly willing to move to whenever the opportunity presents itself.
But enough criticism, because there is not merely a possibility but a certainty that I have committed the very same offense. While I never lamented the absence of God in my life, at the age of twenty-six years I made the decision, almost without thinking, to move to California, and I have never regretted it.
LONG STORY #
It is a long story, but California has occupied an important place in my life since I was very young. It was the obvious destination if I wanted to broaden my horizons, and that is exactly what happened. The beautiful state of California - which, in my opinion, deserves to be regarded as a country in its own right but finds itself trapped within the political machinery of the United States - opened my eyes to a world where everything seemed possible.
Poor California. Kept within the borders of a pseudo-country and separated from the beloved land of Mexico. This feeling goes beyond personal regret. It is a longing for a place I no longer call home, but also an appreciation for having spent almost thirty years in the Golden State.
HARD TO EXTINGUISH #
It is impossible to think about California without also thinking about Hollywood. The two are inseparable. Through its history, its films, its culture, its music, and even its ideals, California seems to have invented the very idea of living. All of this despite having been treated like a cheap prostitute through the outright invasion that followed the arrival of the Europeans.
But once you have lived in California, you carry a fire inside you that is difficult to extinguish.
There is no such thing as a perfect place. There simply isn’t. Yet once you come to appreciate California’s value and potential, you find yourself willing, from time to time, to welcome into your life a few cardinal sins - just not all at once - and, in the process, to bid farewell to common sense and reason.
GOING TO CALIFORNIA #
If someone asked me where I would have liked to have been born, my final answer, without hesitation, would be California. California is a magical place where you dream that you are dreaming while remaining awake.
Back in the 1990s, the British rock duo Never the Bride recorded Going to California for a Led Zeppelin tribute album. The song speaks of starting over after a difficult chapter, with hope in one hand and a pocketful of dreams in the other.
Spent my days with a lover unkind
Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine
Made up my mind to make a new start
Going to California with an aching in my heart
Someone told me there’s folks out there
With love in their eyes and flowers in their hair
I did make up my mind to make a new start, and I arrived with the same hope as the song’s narrator: to find people with love in their eyes and flowers in their hair. California did not disappoint.
HOPES AND DREAMS #
I found something else as well. I found a place that, despite all its contradictions, excesses, absurdities, and imperfections, became part of who I am. California gave me the feeling that a new life was always possible, that there was always another road to take, another dream to pursue, another beginning waiting somewhere beyond the horizon.
That is why, after all these years, California remains my answer to the question of where I would have wanted to be born. So this is my little tribute to California — to the place that taught me to dream, to the place that gave me the courage to begin again, and to the place that, even after I left, never quite stopped feeling like home.
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Published Score.
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