There are multiple ways for me to get from Cole Valley, where I live in San Francisco, to the One Wealth Advisors office in the Mission each morning. While not the most time efficient, I choose to take the N Muni train for a few stops just past Duboce Park and walk the remaining almost twenty minutes to get to work. I love my commute. I feel energized by familiar strangers also starting the day on the train, and I have a brief window to review my emails before settling in at the computer. I get a bit of movement from walking and I talk to my mom who is three hours ahead on the East Coast, or my best friend in LA as she is also starting her day.
In our fast-paced society where time often equates to money, the allure of speeding things up to maximize productivity is strong. I often think about what that speed really gets us. Sure, I could order my groceries online, but I like picking out which bananas are the right level of ripe and leaving room to be inspired by what’s on sale in the cereal aisle. Last week I was at the Whole Foods in the Castro on my way home, and I saw a small business owner with a storefront on Valencia (the same street our office is on) shopping with her kids. This casual familiarity with strangers is one of the many reasons I love living in a city.
While I am all for the technological advances that leave us more time to do the things we love, I am equally aware that what I love is feeling connected to the world and humanity. These more mundane routines, which could be optimized, actually enrich my daily life and ground me in a sense of community and place.
