On Loving the Valley, Oh
Because I now live in the canyon, if I want to procure any object from a large store, I have to make a trip to the Valley. Perhaps you’ve never been to the Valley, but that’s fine—it’s almost the same as not being there. Los Angeles sometimes struggles to be a place, but the Valley barely struggles and succeeds at its modest goals. It has seen what being a place can do to you; in the end, what do the palazzos and the seraglios get, for all their trouble? They get sacked, invaded, sullied. Plaques eventually crop up like little tumors. The Valley is not interested in such distractions.
Valleys are negative spaces. What occupies this Valley? The heat, which, after a noontime stomp on the towels of Malibu, settles in Reseda in the afternoon. It takes a series of naps, occasionally rousing itself to tousle the hair of a Whole Foods shopper here, an aging pornographer there. You feel it moving sideways over you as you get out of your car, which is so easy to do, because the Valley always has parking, everywhere. You can almost just leave your car in the middle of the street.
I like it. There’s an excellent print shop, as well as good food. Is there good food? I don’t really know that, because I’ve eaten at two restaurants there, and the Valley has a million restaurants. It’s bigger than you can imagine. But I feel like it has good food there, which is nice to know. It’s an option I can evaluate when I’m hungry at home. In the end, I choose not to go. But thank you, Valley, for presenting this option to me. You wave to me across the expanse. I wave back, and return to my own priorities.
I played my last chess tournament in the Valley. It’s funny when you do something of emotional consequence there. It’s like saying, here is my most precious pebble, I will return to it always in my heart, and then throwing it into the ocean.
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I assume everyone else knew about this song and I’m just catching up now?
I assume everyone else knew this was online and has watched it already?
I assume everyone else revisits this essay as a caution and reminder now and again?