A common reaction I hear to the whale is, “What is a whale doing in that spot?” I think it could be doing any number of things: it could be basking in the desert sun to escape the gloom of subterranean life; it could be looking to scratch an itchy tubercle or exfoliate a barnacle; or, as it turns out scientists assume whales are doing when they leap from the ocean, it could be trying to communicate with other whales by sending waves of sound through the water. Which to me, portends the most arousing potential meaning of a whale exploding through the asphalt: that there are other whales beneath our fair yet somewhat monotonous city, trolling the primordial substrate and looking for opportunities to breach the grid and punctuate our aesthetic torpor.
I’m not a resident of the inner 9th and 9th area, but I’m fortunate to live a couple miles away and I visit the neighborhood once or twice a week for commerce, social comforts, or just as an interesting waypoint on a trip to another destination. I hope that someday every neighborhood can have its own whale, so that we all can be inspired to jump for joy, to break through and disrupt our surroundings, and to communicate with each other.
Chris Cawley, Salt Lake City
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