A Love Story

It's a few days late, but in today's San Francisco Chronicle is a tale of Old California, a story I've heard before, but it is still sad and romantic regardless. I think each region of the country has its own stories of love, tales of star-crossed affairs, tragic involvements that bring a flutter to the heart and a tear to the eye.

This one involves the daughter of the commandant of the Presidio in San Francisco, Concepcion Arguello, and a Russian, Nicolai Rezanov, a member of the Tsar's court-- a curious intersection of California's past. Most people are familiar with the Spanish heritage and influence on this part of the world, but not too many people know that the Russians, long familiar with the coastal regions in, around, and south of Alaskan waters, ventured as far south as California. But come they did. (If you're ever in the mood for a day trip from San Francisco, you can skip going to Sitka and go to Fort Ross instead. There, you'll see a surviving residence, and reconstructions of the rest of the southernmost Russian outpost on the West Coast).

The tale of Arguello and Rezanov's ill-fated romance makes me wonder: in that situation, would I wait forever for someone who would never return? Would I reject any future possibility of love if I lost someone that I thought was "The One"? For that matter, in this day and age, would such a loss prompt me to up and join the Church? I suppose in the San Francisco of 1806, where a tiny military outpost surrounded by widespread ranchos, there weren't too many opportunities for love and romance. What do you think?