Whenever I blog about how boring Salem, Oregon is, there's a pretty good chance someone will leave a comment along the lines of "Your negativity about the town you live in is getting old…like you."
Well, today I stood up for Salem when someone snarkily commented on the Oregonian's story about "Salemia," our film response to "Portlandia." This guy, bruceabishop, said:
Having both lived and worked there previously, it's obvious to me that it should be pronounced "Sa-Lame-Ya", with the accent on the middle syllable.
That deserved a fierce response, an energetic defense of Salem's non-lameness. So I replied:
Hey, bruceabishop, you're way off base calling my city "Sal-Lame-Ya," WAY off base. There's lots of exciting, creative, artistic, entertaining stuff to do in Salem. For example…
Um. OK. Just a second. I need some time to think…
It's coming. Almost got it. Damn! Slipped out of my mind. Wait, wait… the thought will come back. Oh, now I know what I was wanting to say.
My wife and I can get to a freeway on-ramp in just a few minutes. Then it's easy for us to get to Portland, Eugene, the coast, the Cascades. Gotcha! There's plenty to do in Salem. All you need is a car and enough gas to drive 60-90 minutes.
Hope this silences those who feel that I don't give Salem enough credit for… something or other.
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Sigh, c’mon! Here’s my real, eternal question, and perhaps you can turn your answer into a blog post: WHY o WHY do you all continue to live here if it’s such a downer??
Stephanie, all I can do is share the lyrics to “You Always Hurt the One You Love.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Always_Hurt_the_One_You_Love
——————-
You always hurt the one you love,
The one you shouldn’t hurt at all.
You always take the sweetest rose,
And crush it till the petals fall.
You always break the kindest heart,
With a hasty word you can’t recall.
So, if I broke your heart last night,
It’s because I love you most of all.
——————-
I love Salem. I hate Salem. I desperately want Salem to stay the way it is. I desperately want Salem to change a lot.
I enjoy telling people how great Salem is. I enjoy trash-talking this lame excuse for a city.
There are lots of other places in the world that I could criticize, but I don’t care about them, so I ignore them. To me, Salem is like a semi-failed marriage (something I have experience with, since I got divorced from my first wife).
You want to get along. You have a lot in common. But there also are a lot of problems between the two of you. You’re critical because you care. You’re not at the stage of leaving the relationship, but you also aren’t happy with the way things are.
That’s what Salem is to me: I can’t leave her and I can’t stay with her. I hope we can work things out, but deep down I’m pretty sure she’ll never change. There’s so much history between us, though, I’m willing to stay together.
For forever? There’s no such thing. Just for another day… and then another… and another.