Seeing Both Sides

Today was our day of vacation and we decided to see Hollywood. It is so far removed from everything we do on a daily basis that we thought it would be a nice break. And we decided to ride the Metro -- the Public Transit system/subway in L.A. Only $3.00 a piece for the whole day -- much cheaper than driving and then parking.

So we got to see both extremes. On the ride to Hollywood from Long Beach, we saw several areas with very small houses where it was obvious many people were living. The areas were very urban and typical of people living near poverty. Many of the people on the Metro were obviously heading to low-paying jobs. They would spend an hour or more on the metro to arrive at a job most of us in middle class wouldn't even consider only to turn around and ride another hour to get home. As Caucasians, we were definitely in the minority on the metro today. And we were definitely on the "wealthy" side of things compared to many we road with.

We then arrived in Hollywood and went up and outside to a totally different world. Wealth everywhere. We ended up having lunch and then watching a movie in the famous Chinese Theatre, which was really cool. Then we took a bus tour to see the homes of movie stars. I was feeling guilty for spending the money for the tour and here we were driving by homes of people with so much money they didn't know what to do with it. For example, Marciano, the founder of Guess, has two homes, and each of the homes has between 7 and 10 cars in the driveway -- like Farrari kind of cars, not minivans. He hires guarsd to guard them. We saw the house where Tom Cruise is living and it was surrounded by paparazzi trying to get a picture of the baby.

It was all very fascinating -- here people come to try and make it big and then, when they do, they spend the rest of their lives hiding from people.

I was struck with the thought today that I am not sure that the people living in Beverly Hills are any happier than those living in Watts or Downtown LA. In fact, some of the people we saw on the metro seemed happier than the ones we saw on Rodeo drive.

And my final conclusion is that I would rather have my life than any of the ones I saw. It's not always easy, but it is interesting, full of meaning, challenging, rewarding, has it's moments of joy, and I'm blessed by God's presence. I'd rather have those things than $10,000,000, a home in Beverly Hills, or 9 Jaguar's in my driveway.

We ended our evening with a late seafood dinner where I had a light appetizer of fish tacos that was just perfect for my current stomach and Bart had some awesome scallops.

We will go to bed content. Tomorrow he will sitesee and I will work from the hotels....

We have still heard nothing from home.