Travels with Charley Post

Sadly, California has the same air of loneliness that I tried so hard to escape in New York.  This was to be expected of course, but the thought of finding some personal fulfillment was all that kept me going in my journey across the nation.  At first I was aimless, just happy to escape the city and the norms that I had built for myself over half a lifetime of playing the part of a New York socialite and philanthropist.  

I left without much of a plan, but enough money to sustain my frivolous escape from the pervasive ennui of my previous life.  However, loneliness is an interesting phenomenon.  It can’t be shaken so easily with simply a change of location or the transformation of need.  Sometimes it remains forever.  This isn’t to say that I’m some sort of recluse on my Orange County estate.  Quite the opposite, to be sure.  Recently I met a lovely French woman named Margaret de Beauvoir and we talked for ages and ages at the polo club.  She has such an interesting perspective on the United States as cultural outsider, and I was enraptured with her nuanced thoughts on the American realities that I often take for granted.  

There are others, as well.  Just recently I heard from a friend that John Steinbeck, who I met briefly at a soiree in Connecticut years and years ago is traveling through California right now on a leg of some fantastical trip around the country with his dog.  I absolutely must have him over for drinks if I can get in contact.  I’m settled now- older.  I still retain the platinum blonde color in my hair, but I let it flow loosely around my shoulders instead of tightly constrained with spray and styling.  I like to think that I have made peace with the loneliness, but I really cannot be sure.