Has The Pursuit of The American Dream Ruined Our Values?
Wow! You’re such an amazing painter! You should start a business! Hey! You’re really good at cooking, you should open a restaurant! You sew the cutest clothing! You should sell them on Etsy. - This is The American Dream right? Turing the thing we are passionate about into a business. I think most of us know at this point - especially if you’ve tried to start a business - that taking a passion and contorting it into a business takes a lot of the joy and that contagious passion right out of it. Perhaps chasing The American Dream has actually begun to ruin our value system; that internal plumb line that says what is important to us should not be determined by money alone.
I have a story to share with you today. I think you’re going to like it… and perhaps you too will question where your own plumb line is and where your sense of value has been placed.
I recently had the opportunity to take a trip. An actual vacation as an adult, with no children, no major responsibility, no agenda and no expectations. Me being the planner type I was a little bit nervous to not really know many details about this trip - but I decided to embrace it and frame it in my mind as an adventure. Before leaving the question that was posed to me was is there anything you’d like to do?
The plan was to drive from Idaho to Southern California - L.A. Was the destination. Having never spent more than a layover in the state of California I really didn’t have anything to go off of except what terrible stories the people diserting Cali to come to Idaho had told me… BUT then I remembered there was one place that had been on my list of places to go for over 10 years. A garden. (You knew it was coming hahah.) Not just any garden. An underground orchard that had been hand built over a hundred years ago!
Now, I have to tell you California has never been on my list of places to visit with the exception of grand dreams of working directly with farmers … but I digress. Let’s just say my knowledge of this place was severally lacking. I told my travel companion that I wanted to see this garden since we’d be driving the entire length of the state figuring there would be other cool things along the way. The garden happened to be located in Fresno, CA. A place I knew absolutely nothing about. The drive to Fresno was… um… less than exciting … it was smoky and the views were, well mostly desert. The most interesting part was seeing all the olive groves, vineyards and what I imagine were citrus orchards. The landscape wasn’t terribly different than eastern Oregon and Washington…. or southern Idaho… dry… and lacking in trees and diversity. There was one area that I really think looked like we’d somehow traveled to Africa. I half expected to see lions and zebras and giraffes thanks to my wild imagination. We did get quite the view of Mt. Shasta and that was rather spectacular. I was thankful for the drawing pad, audio book and good company to keep things interesting.
Mount Shasta
The week we were traveling the temperatures climbed and back home would be experiencing record highs while I was away. Fresno was not excluded from these high temperatures. We pulled in after already traveling a day and a morning and it was 116 degrees Fahrenheit!! The hottest weather I’d ever been in. When we pulled into Fresno we were hungry and had some time to kill before our scheduled garden tour. We stopped into In and Out Burger (we don’t have these where I am from) to grab a bite and find the location of the Forestiere Gardens. As we pulled in we were pleasantly surprised to see that it was right across the street! As we drove by I got a bit nervous.
The gardens were surrounded by a chain link fence (as were many places) something I am not used to. The lot looked vacant and desolate. What had I gotten us into? We drove all this way through Central California for this? … oh dear…
We enjoyed our lunch and the air-conditioning, though my mind was occupied by thoughts of what we might encounter.
10 years prior I had been researching gardening and different methods used around the world. Forestiere Gardens had surfaced and I was fascinated by the fact that one man had spent a lifetime digging an underground garden in order to beat the Californian heat. Ingenuity, determination and persistence were traits worth admiration. I knew I would never travel just to see this place, but I would certainly take the time to visit if I were ever passing through… and here I was passing through.
After lunch we passed the rest of the time listening to the audio book, The Borrowed World by Franklin Horton. (Maybe not the best choice for a first trip to L.A. - just sayin) Our tour was scheduled for 1 O’Clock. We exited the truck and the dry heat immediately felt suffocating. One of the tour guides was passing by as we took a last sip of water before heading to the gate.
“Oh! Yes! You are going to want to bring water with you on the tour. “ she said. “It’s 10-15 degrees cooler underground… which would make it a cool 100 degrees!”
Oh my, this could be a long hour. I dug my hand into the bottom of the bag of drinks - since I’d be flying home and not driving I hadn’t packed a cooler. I froze some plastic water bottles and tucked them in a double paper bag with a dozen other cold drinks. When my hand reached the bottom I pulled out two mostly frozen bottles. The contrast between the blistering hot air and the icy cold liquid dripping down my hand was dramatic. I was relieved to learn we were allowed to bring them with us. We locked up the truck and made our way to the check in station.
There were already several other families seated underneath a long wooden arbor. It was covered with huge grapevines that were weighed down heavily with full clusters of ripening fruit, There were citrus trees laden with oranges and limes. Underneath the arbor was a stone path lined with a stone wall on either side. There were benches set into the walls and we sat down on one and waited until our tour begin. It was cooler in the shade - but not much. We carefully sipped our water knowing it would need to last us through the hour.
Citrus growing under the trellised area.
Before long we were allowed to descend the stone staircase that led underground. On either side of us the walls rose up and we followed the others into the depths of the earth where there were a series of chambers and tunnels. Our group was gathered in a large underground room where we would meet up with the tour guide. My fears of being underwhelmed quickly vanished. We began the tour in a large open room that had three trees planted in the middle. The walls were made of hardpan, scraps of metal and handmade mortar. The raised bed where the trees had been planted was also made of these materials. This was the first time I’d seen citrus growing up close. I was in awe.
Our tour guide, a young woman was warm and friendly. She was engaging and detailed. Our group listened intently as she described the life of the builder, Baldassare Forestiere. A man born in Sicily who had traveled to America in the early 1900s, where he learned tunnel building in New York. He was a dreamer. A man who could see his vision as if it were already reality. A man who was born of a wealthy family, but had no wealth of his own. After New York he set out to California to build The American Dream…
Showing the craftsmanship and intricate masonry of the tunnels as wells as the bits of metal used to add stability to the ceiling.
After finding Southern California to expensive he moved to Fresno and purchased the land where the underground gardens still exist today. He worked a day job and then dug in his tunnels afterwards. He wanted to escape the scorching sun and its heat. He liked being under ground so well that he decided his plants would too. He spend his time digging with only a few hand tools like a shovel, pic and wheelbarrow (and I though I put my tools through a lot). What started out as a way to escape the heat turned into full fledge vision. His hopes and dreams were to invite others to this cool underground retreat. He hoped to one day house guests and let them dine on the fresh fruits of the land.
He spent 40 years of his life working on his vision day after day and then sadly passed away after contracting pneumonia following a hernia surgery. You can read more of his story or book a tour here.
As we wound our way throughout the tunnels I could feel Baldassare’s presence - not in a creepy ghost sort of way, but in the legacy that he’d left behind. Every stone, every design, each sunlight room was his imagination come to life. The numbers in which he planted trees and designed the tunnels - 3s & 7s reflected his deep faith in God. His tribute to His religious beliefs apparent in even the grapevines which were pruned just so. The way he delighted in company so much so that he installed a bell that he could hear anywhere from his property and a waiting room below ground.
This humble cavern generated no wealth for this man. Yet he continued to pursue the vision until his last days on earth. He did not resent the failure to achieve The American Dream. He reframed his mindset from that of building wealth to that of pursuing passion. The evidence is in this quote:
“I have been doing this for fun. Money? What do I want with money? If I had $1,000,000 I couldn’t spend it. I am broke but this cavern and all the work it represents is worth more than $1,000,000 to me. ”
This got me to thinking … has the pursuit of “The American Dream” ruined the value of pure passion and fun? Has it diluted the beauty of enjoying a simple life. Has all of the so called helpful tools that are supposed to make our life easier in fact robbed us of something as simple as digging in the dirt with a shovel and wheelbarrow? Perhaps not everyone wants to spend the majority of their life digging in tunnels underground… but you get the idea.
An orange tree happily growing in the cool shade. Many of the trees are the originals that Forestiere planted 100 years ago!
The truth is most of the tunnels that took Forestiere 40 years to build were destroyed. When he passed away his land was sold and only 10 acres were bought back and preserved. The freeway sits above part of the land where tunnels once were. That vacant lot we saw when we pulled in used to be a beautiful man made lake that was home to many relocated fish and other wildlife. The In & Out Burger place across the street sits atop what used to belong to Forestiere. Why was it filled in and destroyed? Simply speaking? A lack of value.
I believe that all things happen in God’s timing. Even this visit to Forestiere Gardens happened just when I was receptive to the deeper message at hand. This garden tour was a good reminder for me to return to my passion. To enjoy building my own gardens. To lay down the pursuit of The American Dream and pick back up the joy, the passion and the enjoyment of doing something I love.
I am thankful for the brother that saw enough value in what Forestiere built that he kept the legacy going. It is now an inheritance we can all go and be apart of. The intricate tunnels serve as an inspiration for each of us. It invites us to think about what that passion inside of us is? What is that thing that we would be willing to spend the bulk of our lives doing? That vision we might get called crazy for pursuing. That thing we can create that might bring others joy or help. What is that dream inside of us that we can see as if tangible in the real world, the something that is so real to us that we can call it forth into this realm?
How bad do you want it?
Forestiere wanted it so badly that he was willing to break through thick dry hardpan with only a pic ax and shovel for forty years. He called it fun… I think this was the real intention behind The American Dream… because in reality The American Dream wasn’t really about money. It was about our rights, liberties, equality and ability to pursue happiness.
For fun…. this is his driveway…. I think we can all agree Forestiere was right, this would be fun. .
Long Live The American Dream in its most true form. I hope that you too will one day get to tour the Forestiere Gardens and see for yourself the beauty of this legacy.
- Esther Munroe
P.S. This post will remain without monetization due to respect for Baldassare Forestiere’s legacy. The links provided are simply for your connivence. Blessings to you all.
