Help The Helpers!

So ... yesterday, like a mere hour after I posted my Help Yourself story about the lovely person putting food out for our people living on the streets, I randomly met the lovely woman walking down Lincoln. "Momma Eileen", a Venice elder and longtime resident, stopped me on the street as she recognized me from social media postings. She had no idea I had just posted about her humanitarian efforts, and when we got to talking (after she hugged me close knowing what I've been dealing with in regards to my Mom's hospitalization), I figured out that she was the benevolent party telling people to "Help yourself!" She was upset. Neighbors had complained, and asked her to put away her food. WHAT?!

In the food's place, there is now a new chalk message, apologizing to our homeless, and urging them to seek help at St. Joseph's. Her jerk neighbors (Developers, of course) complained that the food would attract rats - which to them I assume means human beings that need food. All of the food was in sealed packages, aside from fruit that grows in nearly every Venice yard - that rodents already know about. If it's in a tree or on a fence makes no difference. The only difference here is in the size of the hearts in the parties we're talking about.

I'm seething mad about this, and in that kind of mood where no one should get in your way because you can't take much more. What is WRONG with people, that they would complain about someone helping others? Momma Eileen was even concerned with backlash, and that these heartless wretches would target her in some way if she didn't comply with their complaints to take the food away. Let them try. Not on my watch. The good news is that she gets to keep being her wonderful self, while those fools have to live with their rotten souls, not to mention their karma.

It's time to vote out any and all parties from the Developer/Nimby camps in the upcoming Venice Neighborhood Council elections. It's time to take a moment to examine your own biases and agendas, and come to the realization that we're all in this together, and cruelty gets no one anywhere. It's time to look out for each other, and reclaim our beautiful - and strong - Community for the creative, humanitarian, artistic vortex bubble we've always been proud to be a part of. It's time to join people like Momma Eileen in sharing what we have, no matter what some dickhead neighbor says. If EVERYONE joins in on efforts like hers, the few remaining selfish parties' complaints will cease to matter, because they will be look like the petty, lost souls that they are.

Help the Helpers ... before it's too late (and by that I mean a brewing class war that no one wants, and that no one can win). Thank you, THANK YOU to people like Momma Eileen for trying to make the world a better place every day. I have your backs, and celebrate your very existence.

New Life For A Venice Cactus

The other day my friend Mario posted a picture of a big 80 year old cactus on Vernon Avenue that was scheduled to be torn out today to make way for another BUB (Big Ugly Box, as Mario calls them), asking if anyone could rescue it. They didn't care that this plant had made its home here for going on a century, because you gotta max out that property line, right?

Well ... Venice responded. In no time flat, friends and friends of friends chimed in to say they'd take it ... or some of it, as it was so big no one person could really move it all. Apparently, with a cactus you can just take a piece off and replant it and it will become its own new big cactus. As you can tell, folks have been showing up and taking their special pieces. My heart is full, knowing that this stately queen of a cactus will live on in yards all over Venice (and further afield, as some friends in the desert, Topanga, and other friendly climes have all staked their own claims to share), and that all these lovely people not only cared, but took action - just like that. It's a beautiful thing.

Today was the day. Mario went to check it out and found out that whatever had remained was relocated to a nursery - that the RENTER paid to do. It's still sad to see, but at least we know that new life will grow all over town. Note the previous renters tagged the house, saying, "GOODBYE HOUSE! See you, Casa. You've been awesome. Xo, Keith" "Say it isn't so" "Thanks for keeping Tiger and Jen" - all just bittersweet. So now away goes the little awesome house ...

                         

Thank you to Mario for putting out the call, and to the real deal people of Venice, who have given new life to this majestic beauty that was almost destroyed in the name of "progress". Well done, everyone! 

*Photos by Mario Signore

My Grandma Olson Would Have Loved Venice

My darling Grandma Olson would have been 114 today. Whoa. She passed away in 1993 at 93, and I've missed her every day since. She taught me how to bake pies. She taught me how to be awesome to people. She would say please and thank you for every last thing, to her last breath. She played kickball with us until she was 90. I feel like my hands are starting to look like hers - both cool and alarming...

She was adventurous and would go on road trips all the time with her even older sister-in-law across the country. She took up painting late in life, and we always joked that she was better than Grandma Moses. I took Norwegian as my language in college so that I could rap a little with my Grandma in her native tongue ... we pretty much only got to where she was from and that we were hungry or thirsty .. but she was still stoked.

Leona Olson was famous all over Wisconsin for her flowers ... person after person got up at her funeral and called her "The Flower Lady". Her garden was something to behold, and we spent hours playing in it as little kids. She somehow managed to plant a tropical hibiscus in our yard in Minnesota that still manages to survive those harsh winters, year after year. She may or may not have liked the tattoo I got of it ...

I feel a little sad that she never got to visit me in either Hawai'i or Venice, as she would have freaked out at all the flowers everywhere, all year round. She was known for sharing her flowers and produce with everyone, and as I was strolling about on the Art Block yesterday, wishing she and my Mom were with me (more on that soon), I came upon this neighborhood sharing that would have absolutely delighted my Grandma Olson ...

Love, sharing, inspiration, art, nature ... I loved that about my Grandma and I love that about Venice. Every day.