When I first moved to Los Angeles, we didn’t exactly hit it off. I found the city too driven by appearance and dominated by one industry. You wasted your life in traffic, and no one made connections more lasting than “So… we should really…” “Yeah, totally.”
So after relocating to New York City, I joined the ranks of the “L.A.-haters.”
Then, a few things dawned on me: New York would be more driven by appearance, if appearances weren’t covered up much of the year. And as for industry domination, unlike Wall Street, at least Hollywood wasn’t triggering a global calamity. That is, until one of my screenplays gets made.
New York is easier socially – too easy. Everyone is in your face, sometimes literally. (On the subway, you’re lucky if it’s just your face.) It’s a city of 8 million Jewish mothers – 7,999,999 more than I need.
I can’t entirely forgive L.A. for its traffic, because true teshuvah requires a chance to redeem the sin. And the city has had opportunities to put in real public transportation but has missed the ball worse than Charlie Brown with a legful of novocaine.
But now that I’ve moved back, I see L.A. with fresh eyes. I enjoy the breathing space and think of the long commute as an opportunity to enjoy the beauty – natural, personal, surgical. So L.A., I hereby forgive you for my initial criticisms and ask your forgiveness for my rush to voice them. Because, I see the highest form of forgiveness as a two-way street – even if it happens to be jammed in both directions.
Rob Kutner is a writer for “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” and the creator of New York’s hottest Purim spiel, “The Shushan Channel.” www.robkutner.com
