On a bike ride Saturday morning, we had more than usual smog in the inland valley. It was scary to know that we were on a paved trail, next to the Santa Ana river bed, heading towards several ranges of mountains that appeared to have evaporated.
This happens at various times of the year, less often than it did when my family came here in the early 1980s. And for some reason, I found the phenomenon extra disturbing on this particular day.
If you were new to the area or just passing through, it would be easy to believe there was nothing beyond the valley but more valley. How would you support that knowledge without line of sight validation, without the apps on your phone, without people nearby who shared the knowledge? What if you had no car, no paper maps?
Imagine a child who had seen the mountains many times talking to an adult who had never seen them.
Child: Where are the mountains?
Adult visitor: What mountains.
Child (pointing): There. Those mountains.
Adult visitor: Those are clouds. Don’t you see the clouds?
Child: The mountains are pretty. Sometimes they have snow.
Adult visitor: Ridiculous.
Child: What happened to the people?
Adult visitor: What people?
Child: On the mountains.
Adult visitor fumes. Draws on asthma inhaler.
Child: I saw them. The mountains and people.
Adult visitor: Now you are being disrespectful, and I am a guest.
Child: I went there once.
Adult visitor: Stop lying.
Child: I did.
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