Nestled in the hills of Highland Park in Northeast Los Angeles is the funky, bohemian La Tierra de la Culebra Art Park, otherwise known as the Land of the Serpent.
My son and I visited recently and realized a strange parallel between our experiences and Max's from Maurice Sendak's kidlit classic, Where the Wild Things Are. With sincere apologies to that book's creator, here's a super-abbreviated and paraphrased account of our day among serpents:
Max made mischief.
"I'LL EAT YOU UP!" he said.
That night a forest grew in Max's bedroom.
When Max got to the place of the wild things, they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth...
Max tamed the wild things with a magic trick of staring into their eyes...
Max, the king of all wild things, cried, "Let the wild rumpus start!"
Soon, Max grew lonely and wanted to be where he was loved best of all...
He traveled in and out of weeks and through a day...
And when he got home, his comfy chair was waiting for him, along with his supper-- and it was still hot.Okay, so there was no comfy chair waiting for Max, but it's supposed to be symbolic of the comforts of a parent's love, blah, blah, blah. Also, I just thought the chair in the park was so cool that it had to be included.
If you "book" a trip to the Land of the Serpent, let us know which book you take along to read, or which book best reflects your experiences there.
"Booking" a trip elsewhere? Let us know about it.
