It's worth it, sometimes, going downtown; late at night, with the empty freeways and the empty buldings.

You swing right, north, off the 10 and then back left, around the Staples Center, on these great curving interchanges. You can hit eighty if nobody's around and it feels you're flying, your center of gravity lashing back and forth, the lights roaring by. You haven't got a choice now -- you're committed -- and you head north again, on the 110, into the heart of the LA skyline.

It's beautiful at night, these silent buildings sliding by like great ships floating free in space. Driving the surface streets doesn't work -- you need to be on the freeway, going fast. You sail past at seventy, eighty miles an hour, and these enormous buildings -- these monsters, these cathedrals -- are coming, are upon you, are around you, are gone.

It's breath-taking, heart-stopping -- moving fast and free, through the darkness and the twinkling lights -- and for one fleeting moment, you can leave the surface of the world.

It's worth it sometimes.