A visit to ‘The Golden City’

Story and photos by Matthew Woolford

When I arrived in San Francisco, it was close to midnight, Pacific Time. My flight had already been delayed by almost four hours, following a scheduled connection time of five hours.

Since I was staying near Fisherman’s Wharf, I first had to  get downtown, where I was confronted with the often-reported homelessness crisis. Catching a cab, the driver cautioned that he had picked me up at a “dangerous” spot.

Another person said that the situation was more jarring than dangerous. Pondering both views, I remembered St Paul’s discourse on love: that it is not only patient or kind, but also believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things (1 Cor 13:1–7).

This divine inspiration helped me to appreciate the road that brought me to California in the first place and motivated me to make that most of my time in the Golden State. As such, the next morning, I got up early to “attack” my vacation, heading first to the iconic and unmissable Golden Gate Bridge.

The Golden Gate Bridge

Looking down on the bay from the bridge, time seemed to stand still and wash over me simultaneously. I thought about the integrity that defines a city like San Francisco and the way it has always seemed to embrace new ideas.

I thought about some of the institutions that helped shape the culture of the city, including research hubs like Stanford University and Silicon Valley, and sporting dynasties such as the Golden State Warriors basketball team and the San Francisco Giants baseball team, whom I had the privilege of seeing play live against the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park.

They came to mind not just because of their popularity, but because of the innovative ways they blend faith with reason to create joy in their pursuits.

For the first time in my life, maybe paradoxically, I felt like my past no longer existed. For the first time, I felt I had earned the right to think about what I wanted—and maybe even needed—for myself. This, I eventually learned, was not selfishness, as many have accused me of in the past. Rather, it was a more solemn encounter with a deeper aspect of Storge love in practice.

According to Sister Louise Finn CND (Congregation of Notre Dame), in Called to Compassion-A Retreat with Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys, “God is not satisfied if we preserve the love we owe to others. By our actions we must also preserve others in the love they ought to have for us.”

One of my many relationship flaws, from my observation, was accommodating  people past the point at which they should have been allowed to participate in my life.

This may have been a symptom of a dependency habit that I had not fully outgrown. I also had to admit that many people in my life may be wrestling with feelings of desperation, loneliness, and confusion, and that while I am not strong enough to carry them, I should be less dismissive of their reality.

From these reflections I learned that my life is still a work in progress and that I must continue giving myself permission to climb even higher.

Now, I better appreciate that relationships need reciprocity to survive. Pondering this, I remembered Jesus’ teaching on relationships: “Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest… For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Matt 11:28–30).

‘Imagineering’

The Walt Disney Family Museum was a serendipitous discovery after leaving the Golden Gate Bridge and walking along the San Francisco Bay across Crissy Field. After touring the expansive museum, I left with a more holistic understanding of Walt Disney as a visionary and educator, and of how he blended technology, film, and music to create platforms for teaching the virtues of tolerance and continuous self-improvement—even within his own company.

According to his brother and business partner, Roy Disney, “Walt could never tolerate the guy that was self-satisfied with his art. Walt was obsessed with the idea that in life you just continually go to school. You never reach any plateau of perfection. And he practised that, too, in everything he did.”

Walt Disney himself said, “There’s really no secret about our approach. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors, and doing new things because we’re curious. And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. We’re still exploring and experimenting… we call it ‘Imagineering’—the blending of creative imagination with technical know-how.”

Following this experience, I began to see Walt Disney as an evangelist, who, like St Francis of Assisi, saw animals as great storytellers of creation and leveraged the appropriate use of media to spread messages of positivity throughout the world.