When someone says he'll "make do" with what he has, I think this may mean there's a very real loss somewhere - a typically American loss, a loss of roots and permanence, of security and belonging - but at the same time there is a gain, of movement, hope, of something that can shrug off the loss and go on - and this is also very American. Yes, some ways of "shrugging it off" are better than others. There is bitterness and numbness, but there is also a kind of frontier mentality - not making do with poverty, but accepting it in order to go on from there and discover something new. One way this attitude expresses itself fascinates me - in a very widespread love of nature... It's very beautiful here - the soft hills, so seemingly rich, but at the same time so stark because of the lack of water. The city itself, all hilly and funny. The Bay and the Pacific. The bridges. The place has a lot of charm, and everyone I've spoken to seems to feel that way about it. Still, it's strange how some people speak about the natural world. One woman told me that as a kid "nothing seemed to make any sense, except nature" and so she "ended up getting really into beauty". Again, it seems to me that this response is typically - and beautifully - American. Nature is important because society is ephemeral.  Beauty is important because morality is impermanent. There is no tradition. No fixedness. So the inner qualities, the content, soul, morality of life cannot serve as a basis on which to build life. Instead one must build on external things - beauty, expression, show.