Demons

I was talking to someone I met the other day, someone who has lived in Las Vegas for 8 years, and he said you have to be strong to live here.

I don't know that you have to be stronger to live here than to live any other place. We takes our demons wherever we go. Of course, he was talking about the casinos and strip clubs and flowing rivers of alcohol. But you don't have to loiter about the slots and tables (even though slots are everywhere, from the airport to the 7-11 to the gas station to the grocery store) nor enter the painted-black doors of strip clubs, nor even splash about in the fermented flow; there's no daily forced march. If you are inclined to surrender to your demons on those fronts, then why would you choose to move into their natural habitat, of all the places on God's green earth?

And then he said another thing that interested me, that you have to have a reason to live here. No one comes here for no reason, no one wakes up in the morning thinking, "Hey! Ima move to Las Vegas!"

You can get away with a lot here. Not everything, though. Even Las Vegas has its limits.

P.S. The person I met lives in Marvin Gardens, a complex by the airport. (Not to be confused with the songwriter by the same name.) Isn't there a song from the late 60s or 70s with Marvin Gardens in it? Not this one.