I was recently driving on Balboa Street in the heart of San Francisco’s Richmond District, and when I crossed 24^th Avenue, I noticed a large black sofa on the sidewalk next to a homeless person’s tent. When I drove back, something got my attention. On the sidewalk of 24^th Avenue, there was an oversized outdoor toilet placed six feet from a hand-washing station. And some distance away, I noticed a young man in white overalls and a facemask sitting on a folded chair in the shade, looking down at his mobile phone. Next to him was a white bucket with cleaning supplies. I decided to park my car, but on the corner there were two signs restricting parking to protect the residence of three young men. Through the years I have photographed many homeless people, but never had an opportunity to talk to them. While I was photographing the owners’ possessions, which for some reason included two handicapped chairs, children’s toys, junk and even some artwork, the tent’s occupier stepped out and started a conversation with me. Adam told me that he is very intelligent, good at math, but he just does not like to live by the rules set up by baby boomers and would like to poke holes in their system of living. He also mentioned that the world we live in was designed by people who had structures in their lives, but his generation does not. “There is no mystery left in our lives”, he said. Then he pointed out to their camp and the attendant and said that the money the City spends on the arrangements could easily pay to put them up in a hotel. Though it seemed like there was plenty of food stored in the tent and there was a small stove, perhaps he was referring to the free alcohol and marijuana, which was distributed to the homeless addicts at lockdown hotels.

The cost of dealing with homeless in San Francisco is growing every year. In the 2019-2020 budget proposal, the figure hits more than $364 million, which many expect to be higher. It seems that San Francisco’s liberal-minded supervisors, who like to make social experiments on the taxpayers account can learn some math from the Chelmites.

One fellow had very good news – his wife gave birth, but he was puzzled and went to the local rabbi for advice. “Rabbi, I heard that it takes nine months to give birth, but I’ve only been married for three months.” The rabbi pondered for a moment. “You have been married to your wife for three months, and for how long was she married to you? Three months, and how long were you married together? Three months. If you add it all together, you will have nine months.”

As to support my story, last Sunday, May 24^th, Phil Matier wrote an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, “When narcotics cops left, Tenderloin drugs flowed” and Willie Brown echoed him in his Column, where he mentioned “Cleanup Call”. Sometimes I wonder, how did Chelmites manage to get to San Francisco?

There was a number of events within a few days which led me to this story.

It started with my daily reading of photography books. This time, it was The Definitive Collection of Robert Capa. As a war photography photojournalist, he participated and photographed many world events between 1932 till 1954. He was killed while covering the war in Vietnam. The book contains 937 images, many of which showed not only soldiers and battles, but also of many refugees. Seeing them and thinking about the uncertainty and challenges of their lives compared to what I/we have to go through during the COVID-19 quarantine, I decided just to count my blessings.

You may heard of Dr. Victor Frankl, a neurologist, psychiatrist and follower of Sigmund Freud, who after surviving as a prisoner of four Nazi concentration camps, wrote his best-selling book “Man’s Search for Meaning”, published in 1946. In the book he describes his experience in those camps using a psycho-therapeutic method, which involves identifying a purpose in life to feel positive about, and then imaging that outcome. He observed that some people who had a reason to stay alive for a specific purpose in their lives, survived. However, after the liberation, some experiencing dissolution, committed suicide. One of my favorite sayings is, “Seek for seeds of victory in every defeat”. Therefore I count my blessings.

P.S. Actually what triggered the title and the story, was my recent encounter in Golden Gate Park. While driving through, I noticed a person sitting on the bench, reading. I stopped my car and took a number of images. Then I saw a few other people, who came here to enjoy moments in their lives, or perhaps to count their blessings as well. 

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One of the benefits of staying home was that while I was communicating with clients and our staff, I had more time to walk with Max, to photograph and to work on my images. And another benefit was that I could browse through many art and photography books in my private library. One of them is titled “The Life Millennium: The 100 most important events and people of the past 1000 years”. It was published by LIFE books in 1998. I learned a lot of fascinating facts, I will write about some of them in the future. This week, I will share what I learned about “The Black Plague”, which started in 1348, and in two years killed a third of Europe’s inhabitants (online I found different numbers which amounted to 50 million people or 60 percent of Europe’s entire population).

In the book I also found another interesting connection with Asia in a story titled “Gutenberg Prints the Bible”. “German goldsmith Johan Gutenberg succeeded creating his masterpiece, a run of 200 gorgeously typeset Bibles, in 1455 he unleashed an information epidemic that rages today.” However, “Gutenberg didn’t invent printing: The craft emerged in 8^th century China. He also didn’t invent moveable type, which was invented by the Chinese printer Pi Sheng around 1040. Nor did Gutenberg invent moveable metal type. The Koreans did in the 14^th century. What Gutenberg devised was the first Western moveable-type system that worked so well that it remained largely unchanged for 350 years.” No one knows what will happen over the next 350 years, not even what will happen tomorrow. But I am sure that overall everything is going to be good.

P.S. I’m writing this story by hand on paper, which was invented in China, with a pen, which was probably made in China, as well as many photography books in my library. In spite of the proliferation of the electronic reading instruments many people, like myself and those four book readers I encountered, still prefer the original version.

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Do You Have An Opinion?

When I lived in Riga, Latvia until 1972, it was part of the Soviet Union, with its oppressive regime. Telling jokes was probably the way to laugh at our circumstances. One of them was about a guy who was expressing negative opinions about the government. When he was arrested and brought for questioning, he gave all of his answers according to the party lines. Surprised, the investigator asked him, “Don’t you have your own opinion?” The man answered, “Of course I do, but I disagree with it.” After being married for over 52 years, my wife Elfa still complains that I change my opinion about some subject a week after expressing it. To this my answer is very simple, “This week I know something which I did not know before.”

Of course by now all of those people have different opinions. I just wonder how we (and many others) will change our opinions a month from now. There is a saying, “If I only was smart then, as my wife is now.” I want to finish by sharing with you another joke.

At the interfaith conference representatives of different religions discussed the subject, when does life begin. After a long presentation with quoting the Scripture, a Catholic priest concluded that lives begin at the embryo conception. The next was Protestant minister, who claimed that life begins when a child is born. While they were talking, the rabbi fell asleep. They woke him up with a question, “What is your opinion when life begins?” “My opinion,” answered the rabbi, while stretching his arms, is that life begins when children leave home and the dog is dead.”

P.S. I hope you find my jokes funny, since I am working on my next photo-story book, “42 Encounters with Laughter”. There are going to be 42 jokes with 42 images of people laughing. I’ve included four of them.

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I Know That I Do Not Know

I am paraphrasing the Greek philosopher Socrates, who lived in c. 470-399 BC. According to his pupil Plato, who recorded his teacher’s sayings, Socrates created the Socratic Paradox by declaring “I know that I know nothing.” My original intention was to title this story, “How do you know or claim that you know?” It was rather long, however the question(s) I ask myself and anyone who claims to know what they are talking about, like which steps need to be taken before we will be allowed to go to work, or why wear a facemask if I am six feet apart? We can apply those questions to anything in our lives, especially when the directives come from the authority or politicians, based on the opinions of so-called experts.

After I finished reading the article, I told my wife that I feel vindicated. Since I read various sources and ask myself and others different questions, I am not comfortable with the way coronavirus epidemics is addressed, since it does not take into account the side effects, not the diseases people are dying from, but the economics of it and how it affects those who do not die. Dr. Ioannidis states, “Compared to almost any other cause of disease that I can think of, it’s really sparing young people. I’m not saying that the lives of 80-year olds do not have value – they do”, he says. “But there’s far, far, far more… young people who commit suicide.” “If the panic and attendant disruption continue, he says, “we will see many young people committing suicide… just because we are spreading horror stories with Covid-19.” I do not want to end my feel good story with such negative comments. But I actually consider it as good news, as the article is titled. Very soon positive ideas will prevail, and I think this is what will gradually diminish our concerns. As I pointed out before, I focus on what I WANT, not the opposite. This is why this article was written. I strongly encourage you to read it.

After I finished writing this story, another article appeared in The Wall Street Journal on Monday, April 27^th by T.T. Rodgers titled “Do Lockdowns Save Many Lives? In Most Places, the Data Say No”. The article points out that “The speed with which officials shuttered the economy appears not to be a factor in Covid deaths”. Please do not be blinded by so-called “facts from the experts”. Use Socrates’ method to ask questions, after all “I know that I know nothing”.

P.S. In spite of the claim we do know, as he pointed out, something. We know that tomorrow is going to be a beautiful day, which in the Jewish tradition starts in the evening. Therefore I decided to share with you four beautiful sunsets.

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