You Can't Hide Behind the Palm Tree

IF you're from Los Angeles, the image of the palm tree is both completely alluring and cliché. However, the palm tree in fact isn’t a tree at all; it’s actually more closely related to the grass species. This large lawn tossing, this giant grass tree, embodies the city in more ways than we’d ever stopped to consider. Standing erect, shallow roots intact, the palm tree towers over residential areas snubbing its nose (in this case fronds) at those beneath it. Painfully slender, this enormous shoot of grass stands erect and above the frumpy oak and average maple. Its larger than life quality has fully become the personality of LA. But, I think its done so in all the wrong ways.

Assuming that the palm “tree” represents the shallow nature of Los Angeles, we’d have to agree that Los Angeles is superficial in the first place. I’d have to agree: people cut each other off in traffic, give each other the finger, neighbors shoot each other over colors or street corners, and “industry” divas will rip out even the most expensive extensions for the allure of fame. We live in a city where “please” and “thank you” are rarities, and the only apologies ever uttered are “Sorry, I’m not sorry.” We don’t interact with our neighbors, we shut our doors and lock the deadbolt because we fear our neighbors. Just yesterday a student at Gardena High School critically injured two of his classmates when a gun in his backpack accidentally went off in class. Reporters scornfully ask whether the high school freshman will be tried as an adult, why the school didn’t have metal detectors, and what the chances are of survival for the two injured. However, did anyone stop to ask why the student felt the need to bring the gun to school in the first place?

Interestingly enough, we cannot find salvation under a palm tree; the leaves are dwarfed in comparison to the trunk. You can even say the tree is slender enough that you can’t hide behind it either. Maybe this image gives us more than what we originally would have thought. We can’t hide from our superficial notions, our traffic, or our lack of humanity for one another. And maybe so many people come to Los Angeles because they want a place to hide.

--Hailey Hanann

photo: "Little Palms, Mid-Town"
credit: L.G.