Cathedral as home is window on L.A.

As one who usually merely browses the Home section (its articles strike me more as House than Home, while my interests are more Home than House), I was singularly struck by “In the Shadow of Angels” (Sept. 18), Marjorie Gellhorn Sa’adah’s lovely piece on her home in what was once St. Vibiana’s Cathedral.

The glorious photograph and full-page layout demanded my attention, and Ms. Sa’adah’s sublime writing rewarded me with far more: insight into a colorful, surprisingly vital downtown community that no doubt goes largely unnoticed and certainly underappreciated.

I think of Los Angeles as my home, but realize that a large number of its rooms remain largely unexplored by me -- our city as House, not Home -- and this troubles me.

More pieces of the caliber and depth of Sa’adah’s would do much to show me the way around, to encourage me to view this enormous collection of people I don’t know not merely as folks united in a desire to kill ants (Letters, Sept. 18) but as kindred souls striving to sustain their neighborhoods and themselves.

Mike Miller

Los Angeles