"Berkeley, Ha!"

It was sometime last fall, back in College Station, when I happened to mention to a repair guy where I'd been all summer, namely Berkeley, CA, and his reaction was priceless:  "Berkeley?" he jeered in disbelief, "Ha!" Meaning roughly:  "Ber-ZERK-ley?  Why would ANYONE want to go there?  What a complete waste of time, and how revolting to be wallowing in Liberals, on top of that?" Brought me up short, let me tell you, and I have been mulling it over, ever since.

This comes up today because I am back in the land of the Golden Bears and back at the library where I did some good work last year, and the whole thing is playing out again in my mind.

I ask myself, "Why would I want to go to a place where all the students you overhear are talking zillions of interesting things, and not just whether to get drunk this weekend?  Why get some good work done in one of twenty or more libraries on campus, filled first-floor-to-third-floor-ceiling with students studying hard, but where no-one is speaking or eating, and where the wall as you come in is lined with covers of all the publications originating from its department?  Why have any respect for an institution where there are enough Nobel laureates on faculty to rate their own (free) parking lot?  And what's so great about having a local music venue where I can listen to Ruthie Foster one night of the week and another night to a Koto ensemble, or go across the street from there to see plays in one of three or four theaters, each one doing some new thing?  And let's not talk about the places to eat, or we'll be here all night, and definitely not about all the stuff to do in San Francisco, a mere BART-ride away, because that's not really fair; it's half an hour away!

"Why live someplace you can walk every day and see some cool new neighborhood, yard, park or gorgeous old bungalow, or hike around on the mysterious pedestrian paths that connect the steep and winding streets, 1000 feet above the Bay?  A place where the weather is so mild and the soil is so good that your garden will bloom all year and there are so few bugs that you can leave your windows unscreened and open all afternoon, and not get smothered in them?  Where the college athletics are great but not the main thing?  Where everyone's consciousnesses were raised so long ago that it is old hat to be inclusive of people in wheelchairs -- for starters -- instead of something amazingly new?"

"Berkeley?  Ha!"