Exit133

January 29, 2009 · Derek

AY: Beauty and Pain

Today we are excited to welcome Adam Ydstie to Exit133’s list of regular columnists. He offers us another perspective on our city and the people we see every day. We’re thrilled to have him on board.

I think that John Steinbeck sums up perfectly the way that I feel and think about Tacoma in the opening paragraph to Cannery Row:

Cannery Row, in Monterrey California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Tacoma is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps … restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses. Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, “whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,” by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, “Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,” and he would have meant the same thing.

Steinbeck does an impressive job of connecting the pain and beauty in a place that meant a lot to him. I wonder how often we do that. Our society focuses so much on success that we quickly dismiss pain and therefore miss out on experiencing something purely beautiful. This is true even in our day to day interactions with fellow citizens in our community.

When I was first invited to write for Exit133 I had to stop and think about what right I had, as a recent Tacoma transplant, to author a column for a website about our beloved city. I honestly didn’t believe that I deserved to. All those beastly thoughts of self-depreciation reared their ugly heads as I continued to compile a long and redundant, yet convincing, list of all the reasons why I was not fit for this opportunity. Although, while my left brain was compiling this very critical and analytical list, my right brain was ecstatic at the thought for a creative outlet. So thus, I accepted the mission, no matter how impossible my left brain made it seem. It was apparent that excitement and creativity outwitted the formidable logic.

What I am excited about is that this a potential opportunity to get to know more people in the city that I have chosen to call home. So, with my freshman article, I will divulge a bit about myself and perhaps provoke some thought about our city.

I have all my life been a wanderer and have never really found a place that I can say I belong. Until I came to Tacoma. There was something about this place that intrigued me. After almost two years, I still cannot put my finger on what it is that keeps me here. I think it might be that I have found a place where beauty and pain commingle in a dance that lifts each one equally and elegantly, but not without tension, into the city air.

Steinbeck has given me a challenge: To try to not be afraid of pain, and to lift it in tension with beauty, or hope. I am trying to open my ears to hear the voice of pain and not always feel like I have to share some trite word of hope and encouragement. Sometimes allowing someone, or something, to give voice to their pain is healing in and of itself.

How would you sum up our city in a few sentences as Steinbeck did with Cannery Row? Where do you see pain or beauty in our fair city? Or better yet, where do you see pain and beauty dancing together to the rhythm of our streets?

15 comments

  • Grace Sullivan January 29, 2009

    Yay, Adam. This feels very right.

  • crenshaw sepulveda January 29, 2009

    Does this mean that Adam is replacing Daniel Blue?

  • Whitney staff January 29, 2009

    Does this mean that Adam is replacing Daniel Blue?

    No, Daniel Blue is not being replaced. We are just adding to our contributing writers. We hope you enjoy the new perspective.

    Be on the look out for another addition soon.

  • Thorax O'Tool January 29, 2009

    Tacoma is more than decrepit old buildings rotting into dust on Pacific Ave. It is more than just raw idealism infected with cancerous apathy. It means something other than potential that is wasted by the “good ole boys” club that dominates government and business in this city.
    The juxtaposition of empty streets downtown and awful crowds at the mall; the bustling port with containers and oil; the poverty and crime.
    Tacoma is more than just what it appears to be, it has a pulse, it has respiration and thick, hot blood. It has a voice, the sound of the saws at the lumber mill, the cars on 38th, the laughter of small children, the moans of despair among the homeless. Other cities try to hide that voice behind yuppie-filled condos and high-end retail.
    Forget them, they lie.
    Tacoma screams out in frustration.
    Tacoma screams out in anger and pain.
    Tacoma screams out begging for love-
    but is forgetting how to accept it.

  • Adam Ydstie January 30, 2009

    @5 TO’T

    Thanks for posting this. Exactly what I was asking. Love it all… especially the last line. My hope that we can all learn to love ALL of what makes up Tacoma.

    What I like about Tacoma, but often fear is slowly disappearing, is that its people love its grit and that which makes us different. I hope that we don’t just try to be another blue print…

  • RR Anderson January 30, 2009

    was unsure what this column was about. Boe does city planning… Daniel Blue does “Art/hipster” perspective… That one lady writes about “giving,blahblah” so I couldn’t quite figure out this one.

    Now I know it’s “The Writer’s” outlook.

    Not unlike a city art’s article I couldn’t make it much farther than the first couple of sentences. However the honeymoon period is still open on this column. keep it up!

  • Mofo from the Hood January 30, 2009

    FROM MY INBOX:
    Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.—-Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    Submitted by Nowhere Man for the benefit of Exit 133 and Tacoma, because of the tyranny of an unspoken social contract.

  • Thorax O'Tool January 31, 2009

    @ Adam: “Exactly what I was asking“

    …if only I would get a reply like that from Mc-Graw Hill and Houghton Mifflin.
    I’m tired of getting rejection letters. I swear I could wallpaper my bathroom with them by now.

  • Thorax O'Tool January 31, 2009

    @ Mofo

    Nowhere is a man more enslaved than one who believes he is free.

  • Eric Hutchison January 31, 2009

    I don’t live in Tacoma, but everything I hear through the lens of my best friend Adam Ydstie and now through this blog tells me a story of redemption … but who always wants to hear about dirty slaves getting cleaned up with blood, sweat and tears … I do. It’s not easy, but its perfect.

  • Mofo from the Hood January 31, 2009

    A journey of a thousand miles begins with a shot of Jack Daniels.

  • Tora! Tora! Laura! January 31, 2009

    Thorax:

    Jack London received hundreds and hundreds of rejection letters for his manuscripts before his first book was published.

    Also there was an experiment done recently where an older piece of semi-famous published work was submitted to several places and was soundly rejected by all of them

  • dni February 2, 2009

    The constant struggle of our streets to be the man respected, the lady adored, while his shoes are worn through and her dress old and thread bear in areas strategically hidden, by well seen by all who come close.

  • Thorax O'Tool February 2, 2009

    @T!T

    Give me time… one day you’ll all have read my novel.
    I go by the famous words of Winston Churchill:
    “Never, never, never, never, never give up“

  • Tora! Tora! Laura! February 2, 2009

    TOT:

    That’s the attitude that will make your dreams a reality. Hang tough!