It’s very clean.
When I moved away from Minnesota a year ago, I was immediately struck by how large it looms in my imagination. As usual, I didn’t really write that much about it because my thoughts were overwhelmingly positive. Positive things are sort of boring to write about. Looking at the tag clouds, it seems like the things that I have mixed or negative feelings dominate my writing. Like Walker Evans. I have a love/hate thing going with him and always have. But Minnesota, well, it’s nearly all love.
There were two primary colors that dominated during the time I lived in the Twin Cities: white and blue. White from snow, of course, but also white from the fastidious scrubbing of most of the spaces I spent time in. The cold takes away all the smells too; and the cold there is quite blue. When the skies would get clear, that’s when it would get insanely cold.
I loved it. I just can’t really think of anything bad or controversial to say about it. It felt like a spiritual home from the moment that I set foot there. I hope I can go back someday.
Of course, my other spiritual home is the San Joaquin Valley (Bakersfield). But I wouldn’t want to go back there for longer than a few days. I can think of lots of bad things to say about it. Its color was dirt brown, but Bakersfield’s another story.
