lagunabeachindy . com APRIL 28 , 2023 17
GUEST OPINION :
The Best Thing About Laguna
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By Billy Fried
The best thing about Laguna is that it ’ s smack dab in the middle of California . Oh sure , we have our own special slice of bliss - ocean , mountains , and impossibly charming neighborhoods , but we also have the rest of this glorious state swaddling us with her embarrassment of riches . And right now , California wins the world ’ s beauty pageant . Not Miss America . Miss Planet Earth ! It ’ s no coincidence that Earth Day just happened , a not-so-subtle admonishment to stop what we are doing , look around , and honor the very life force that sustains us . And right now , it ’ s the flowers that can save us from despair .
Oh my god , they ’ re every-freaking-where . Yes , we have our yellow carpets of sunflowers cascading to the sea , our purple lupine and orange poppies . We have our Portuguese non-native Pride of Madeira opening her cosmic purple cones , but what we mostly have is that pesky and invasive import from France , mustard . It ’ s so pervasive that , given the dearth of orchards in our namesake county , we should change our name from Orange to Mustard County . But venture beyond our confines and the rest of the state is awash in color .
I spent the last week in the high desert of the Mojave , and it ’ s a living , thriving Fantasia . Many people say the desert is brown and monochromatic . But they aren ’ t looking closely enough , and certainly not during a super bloom like we are having this year . The last time I recall a bloom this magnificent was in 2017 . It was particularly poignant then because a certain orange-headed cretin hellbent on destroying our democracy had just been elected President . My circle of friends were deep in existential despair . Nobody could make sense of it , and we all felt a sense of impending doom , that the dumbing down of civilization depicted in the film Idiocracy was upon us and the end was near .
And then I met the flowers . Millions of them . Springing from down deep under a previously unforgiving , parched earth . Lighting up entire valleys . Bringing certainty that , whatever was to come , the earth would survive and spring anew . I
Desert sunflowers , also known as Encilia , give the Mohave landscape a burst of spring color . Photo / Billy Fried
knew at that moment we would be okay , and I admonished everyone to simply take a walk in the wilderness to be assured of the same .
The California desert offers perhaps the starkest reminder of the polarities of life , the flash cycle of death and rebirth in front of you at all times . And right now , the birth of the yellow desert sunflower is bringing so much life to the high and low desert it hurts the eyes . The Japanese say that green is the most neutral , soothing color on the planet , which is why they revere a practice called forest bathing . The late , great desert-dwelling painter and occasional crooner Frank Sinatra called orange the happiest color . But I declare yellow to be the most vibrant color , so bright in its intensity that it will lift your spirits to the heavens and make you believe that beauty is the answer to life . That if we surround ourselves with it , and pursue it with fervor , even the heaviest of burdens will melt away .
And so when I read about the weekly travails of misery in Laguna , where a cabal of residents seek to discredit or even remove the laws and people they disagree with and do it in such a pernicious , prickly , and dispiriting way , I say get to the flowers , man . There you will find the solace you so obviously need . That everything is ok just as it is . As long as we nurture and revere this marvelous planet .
Because , just like the cycle of life , this spectrum of color and light is ephemeral and fleeting . The cool desert and coastal rains will quickly give way to the hot , parched , summer cycle , exacerbated by a warming planet . In a fleeting instant , these robust fellas reaching toward the sun will be gone . Returned to the earth from which they sprang . Just like us . The whole system is on display , in a cosmic demonstration of the impermanence of life .
We can ’ t slow the march of time . But we can savor the gifts within it and spread joy and beauty to those around us . And despite her many flaws , no place offers a bigger cornucopia of heavenly beauty than this place called California .
Billy is the CEO of La Vida Laguna , an outdoor adventure company , and the host of “ Laguna Talks ” on KXFM radio - Thursdays at 8 p . m . Email : billy @ lavidalaguna . com .
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