I mean, there's history, but there's something else.

I just wrote a postcard to a friend, and then had one of those moments of looking at what I wrote and seeing it as something else. I thought I'd take a moment to preserve it, and I hope she forgives me for sharing thoughts that would otherwise belong only to her:

...there's something very compelling about deserts, and cities sprung, unlikely, in the desert. Some strange combination of determined and obscene. Desert cities are rife with stories that have nothing to do with history.

I was originally talking about Phoenix, but it's also about Las Vegas, and Barstow, and my adoration of New Mexico. I like places that grapple with mythology.