What is Your American Dream?

When we moved to San Francisco in August 1980, as students, my dream was to find a job to enable me to pay taxes. Then after I became a mortgage broker in September 1983, my dream was to buy our family home. It was fulfilled in April 1984 (and we still live there). For many years I thought that the term American Dream referenced homeownership in America. As a mortgage broker, I was proud that for over thirty-six years I have helped thousands of clients reach their American Dream. And then on January 31st, I read an article in “The Wall Street Journal” titled, “The American Dream is Alive and Well” by Michael Strain. It started with the sentence “What do President Trump and Bernie Sanders have in common?” Turned out that they, as many other prominent people, “voiced concern about the death of the American Dream.” Mr. Strain is the Director of Economic Policy at The American Enterprise Institute and is the author of his new book, “The American Dream is Not Dead”. In Wikipedia I found out that “The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals of the United States, the set of ideals (democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity and equality) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers.”

The article points out that “presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-declared “democratic socialist” has often said that the United States should be more like Scandinavia”. Actually Scandinavia consists of three countries – Denmark, Sweden and Norway. By adding Finland and Iceland it is commonly known as Norden. These are five completely different countries, with different peoples, traditions and history, with a total population of about 27 million, which constitutes about 8% of 327 million of Americans. There is another statistic. 5.52 million Finnish people are considered to be the happiest in the world. They probably accomplished their Finnish Dream. As far as Bernie is concerned, he reached his American Dream, as it was posted recently in an article in Politico “The Secret of Bernie’s Millions”. If he would move to Finland, he would become an honorable senior citizen, since the Prime Minister of Finland Social Democrat Sanna Mirella Maria is thirty-four years young.

P.S. I agree with Michael Strain – the American Dream is alive. While not everyone can reach it, everyone can dream about, like probably these four young people I encountered.

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What Is Hope?

On February 8^th, we attended the Russian Gala. It was organized by the JFCS, which this year celebrates 170 years. In 1850, three years after a small village called Yerba Buena became known as San Francisco, August Helbing established the Eureka Benevolent Society with the purpose to help new Jews arriving from Europe to settle in the new land. In 1939, the organization was renamed the Jewish Family Service Agency. It not only helped Jewish people; but also helped people of all ethnic and religious backgrounds. In the mid-70s, the JFSA helped to resettle Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees. By the time we arrived in San Francisco in August 1980, the organization, which became known as the JFCS (Jewish Family and Children’s Services) was helping thousands of new immigrants from the former Soviet Union to settle in their new home in San Francisco and the Bay Area. As time passed, many of those Jews who were helped by the JFCS, established themselves, became professionals and entrepreneurs, raised families and started paying back by helping those in need, and by giving their donations. And then nineteen years ago a group of successful émigrés decided to celebrate the organization’s good work with a party. As the years progressed, the event became known as “Russian Gala”, a sold out celebration that drew in many people of various backgrounds; not only Jews and émigrés.

One of the reasons for JFCS’ success, is its leadership. The organization is headed by Dr. Anita Friedman. In her opening remarks, Dr. Friedman pointed out that though the history of persecutions, extermination, pogroms, the Holocaust, and expression of Antisemitism in Europe and extremists’ killing of Jews in our country, the optimism is not a Jewish trait. However, Jews tend to possess a perpetual hope that in spite of the intentions of others, they survive and prosper and always will be in the forefront to make our world a better place to live.

P.S. Instead of showing images of the Violins of Hope, I decided to share with you four special bouquets of flowers to honor the memory of the musicians who played on those violins.

Do not give up hope and Share it with a Friend!

  

Are You Planning the
Rest of Your Life?

There were three reasons which led to this story. The first one was an obituary article in the local paper. My wife Elfa read it because the story was about a man who outlived his wife by three days after being married for seventy years. The other story was a dedication to a friend who died at the age of sixty, of lung cancer, about which I read in the book “Create Your Best Legacy” written by Michelle Lerman (I strongly recommend the book and Ms. Lerman’s Services). The third one was an article titled “Life Expectancy Ticks Up Slightly for First Time in 4 Years“ written by Janet Adamy, which appeared in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2020. The article stated that “Women are expected to live five years longer than men, to the ages of 81.2 and 76.2 respectively, according to the 2018 figures.” Since I just celebrated my 73rd birthday, it means that I only have (statistically) three years to be around. This math cannot be right. Recently I read in the Torah that the patriarch Jacob lived until the age of 147. According to this math, I am in the middle of my life. This makes perfect sense, since I still have so many things to accomplish while being alive. For starters, I still have to publish forty books in the “42 Encounters” series, which will take me to the age of 112, and then I will have 35 years to sell those books (just kidding). Of course, there are other things I will have to do while I am still around, like helping my clients find mortgage solutions, to better their lives. Well, all of this might not be significant for you, but at least I have the reason why and a plan to stick around. Do you?

I met a new client recently. At the age of 67, she was fired from her job after forty years in the same medical occupation. My original inclination was to help her get a reverse mortgage. However, after we talked, I realized that getting rid of her mortgage payments was only a partial solution. I was fortunate to be able to help her to find a part-time job at an attorney’s office. Now she is considering learning how to become a paralegal. Meanwhile, in addition to her work, she is going to be busy and enjoy her life practicing yoga, making jewelry and spending time with her friends and family until at least the age of 81 (statistically speaking). As far as her mortgage is concerned, I was able to refinance her loan, combining and paying off her debts and lowering her payments by almost $1,000.00 a month. Not everyone is so lucky, but all have a choice to plan the rest of their lives.

P.S. These images show four people, who seem happy to have reached their retirement age.

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Library Lovers’ Month

While driving and listening to Public Radio, I heard that February 2020 is Library Lovers’ Month. When I checked about it online, the first thing I saw was a quote from Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman philosopher, who lived 106-43 BC. “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need”. Anyone who lives in San Francisco has both – Golden Gate Park and the San Francisco Public Library. While Golden Gate Park opened in 1871, the San Francisco Public Library was established in 1878. It was funded by a specially created property tax (now you know where your money goes to fund the budget of close to 130 million).

But we also have other sources for books like the “Little Free Library”, that are located throughout many areas of San Francisco. In our neighborhood, Monterey Heights, there are four little boxes on a pedestal. I even created a walking routine with Max to visit each of them to check out what is new and to bring some of my books for an exchange. The trend started in 2009 in Hudson, Wisconsin by Todd H. Bol. Nowadays more than 90,000 public book exchanges are registered with the organization and they are present in 91 countries. Their purpose is “To inspire a love of reading, build community, and spark creativity by fostering neighborhood back exchanges around the world.” You do not have to travel around the world to find a good book. Just visit one of your neighborhood libraries.

P.S. Max cannot read books, but he likes to visit Little Libraries and to pose for you. And if you want to give someone you love a gift for Valentine’s Day, (or any other event) “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers” could be a perfect idea, check it on Amazon.com.

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