OUR TOWN

Slogging across the city yesterday to the tune of sirens, horn honks and screeching tires, it's hard to believe this city has a soul, a heart. But then I pull up to my job site and see neighbors out talking and laughing, all unified looking for a necklace dropped by a young woman in the group. Later on, sitting in front of my own home, miles away, talking to a dear friend on the phone before going in the house, I watch our own little neighborhood tableau. Children running up and down our stairs looking for Marques and Gabby, parents catching up after a long hot week, laughing and commiserating with one another about this trial and that, everyone slowly but surely weaving that tapestry that we call home. And I hear it, quietly at first but then it's all I can hear as I sit in my truck . . . It's the heartbeat, the rhythm of our collective soul and it defines the beauty that can be L.A. —