Tag Archives: Venice (CA)

Through A Winter Wonderland to A Big Rainbow House

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

December 12, 2022, San Diego-

It’s always a pleasant scene, in Pine Valley, CA.

After a blissful sleep, with my spirit operating on another level, while the body enjoyed complete rest, I left the well-furnished microhotel, known as Palms Inn, took a nice breakfast at Space Age Restaurant and bid farewell to Gila Bend. Friends in Yuma were busy, so I blazed on to Pine Valley and Major’s Diner, enjoying a winter scene from Jacumba to near Alpine. The above Merry Christmas whiteness is in front of Major’s.

A scant hour later, I was at this gem of a hostel.

Samesun Hostel, Ocean Beach

Samesun(pronounced same sun) is everything implied by the name. The mostly young crowd welcomes all, honours each person’s space (as I write this paean, two groups are enjoying one another’s company, and when I am ready to rejoin them, there will be room.) Part of this is the vibe of Ocean Beach, which I last visited in November, 1980, before Penny and I met. I remembered how well people got along here, in front of one of San Diego County’s nicest surfing beaches. Having felt tension at the last hostel where I stayed, a mostly older male facility downtown, on my last visit, it was just time to seek a younger and more tolerant vibe.

Here it is: The big rainbow house, called Samesun.

San Diego’s largest peace sign, at Samesun Hostel

A new friend named Johnny, from Chicago, said he chose the hostel after seeing this icon, after arriving here from a Venice, CA weekend. Johnny and I talked of the Grateful Dead and the Doors, for a while, then I headed to the surf show-just down the street.

A lone woman surfer tries her Ocean Beach luck.
Incoming tide at Ocean Beach
Gulls gather together, for comfort.
The surf, agitated by this latest storm, Ocean Beach.
More majestic surf, bathes the rocks, at Ocean Beach.
Rear view of a breaker, Ocean Beach.
Lone male surfer, who rode five waves while I was on the pier.

Realizing that I needed to move my car from the commercial zone, I bid both of the surfers well and headed back. Once Sportage was safely in a space near a church, I came back to the hostel and saw this:

Affirmation, at Samesun Hostel.

So does Ocean Beach join Little Italy, Old Town San Diego and La Jolla, as a welcoming place in one of my favourite large cities. So does Che and Chloe’s Pizzeria, where Chloe herself welcomed me, cheerfully, this evening, join Harbor Breakfast and Filippi’s, as a staple of any San Diego sojourn. I will have much to ponder, this evening, but in a good way and in excellent company, by a warm bonfire pan-a Southern California standby.

Safeguarding One Another

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, impediments, Personal Values, Social, Striving

February 9, 2020-

An older actor, Orson Bean, was struck by two cars, two days ago, as he walked to a community theater, near his home in Venice, CA.  I’ve been to Venice, a couple of times, most recently last November.  There are a number of homeless people living along Venice Boulevard, both north and south, and in a few pockets close to the beach.

Mr. Bean was not homeless, nor did he appear to suffer from dementia.  He was consciously walking to meet his wife, at the theater.  He was also looking forward to the showing of a play, in which he was involved, at the same theater.  He was following a Venice practice, of crossing the road at its most convenient spot-away from the crosswalk.  I daresay that is a rather widespread phenomenon, worldwide. It can work, on occasion, if drivers notice the pedestrian in time, but it is never inherently safe.

The larger issue here is, to what extent are we each other’s keepers?  I have stated, and maintain, that one cannot regard others as mere extensions of self.  The world is full of homeless people, dysfunctional families, troubled schools, fractured environment.  No one can resolve even one of these, in and of him/herself, but try we do, and must.

There are, as the death of Orson Bean underscores, more common occurrences, to which we can contribute mightily.  Los Angeles, of which Venice is a part, has an initiative to curb traffic-related deaths.  Phoenix, which is not all that far from here, has many of the same issues, relative to motor vehicle-pedestrian collisions.  Other cities are certainly in the same situation.  For any initiative to work, behavioural change has to be enacted-and before that, must come an attitudinal adjustment.

It would seem, then, that the mindset of consciously looking out for our fellows, continuously, daily, until it becomes second nature, will drastically curb much of the mayhem that brings grief to so many-unnecessarily.  It can’t just be of the New Year’s resolution variety.  It must become ingrained.