 Ed Garren, traveler and writer. By Ryan Gierach. |
Ruth Fisher of "Six Feet Under" is grieving the loss of her husband, and finds a jar of baby food in the back of a kitchen cabinet. It's fifteen years old, from when her daughter was a baby. Claire is now 16, dating and like all of the rest of her kids, growing up and leaving. She tells a friend that she is living with relics of a past life that don't exist anymore.
Life changes, people move away, they die, earthquakes shake things up, floods wash things away, tyrants rise to power, they get brought down, buildings get built, and they get torn down.
Last weeks article about "stuff" sparked a flood of responses. It seems like most of us have personal relics in our lives. Little things that become a part of us, we become attached to. If they are stolen, or are taken away, it is like losing a member of the family, or a part of our bodies.
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Some religious traditions teach detachment from the material world, other's teach integration and acceptance. We are material beings, made of earth and water, filled with spirit. Our spirit longs to be free, but our material selves need stuff.
 Tara, as the property came to be known by Elsie Weisman and countless others, shall ever after be called Laurel Place. By Ryan Gierach. |
Sometimes the "stuff" relates to physical space, specifically buildings and houses.
I'm writing this on Monday night, October 16th, as I attempt to mourn the loss of one of West Hollywood's most beloved relics, from a life that doesn't exist anymore. That relic is Elsie Weisman's beloved "Tara."
Tomorrow night I'm going to hear John David Callahan, a senior fellow and cofounder of Demos, a New York City-based think tank dedicated to high Democratic values, and Larry Wallack, dean of Portland State’s College of Urban and Public Affairs, for a conversation about morals and politics. Callahan, who writes frequently for The New York Times and The Washington Post, is the author of the new book, "The Moral Center", which argues that Americans who are making voting decisions based on "values" are responding to a legitimate and widespread moral crisis.
Callahan believes that the problems that matter for most Americans are not abortion or gay marriage but rather issues that neither political party is addressing—selfishness that is careening out of control, the effect of our violent and consumerist culture on children, and our lack of a greater purpose.
At church this last Sunday, the lessons centered around wealth, and all the ways it gets in the way of knowing or loving God.
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At what point does the need to have enough become replaced with the obsession to have all that one can acquire and accumulate? It would seem the entire country is on a fast track of greed, driven by fears of scarcity.
 What Tara loses in green space, the entire lot to the left and behind the building, it makes up in housing units. By Ryan Gierach. |
Also at church, we had a presentation by an organization, El Porvenir, ("The Future") which builds wells, wash houses, stoves and latrines in Nicaragua. The members of the parish who have gone to help build those facilities spoke of the generosity of the people, who share what little they have very freely with their American guests. These people, who live in sheds, with dirt floors, cooking on open fires, provide meals, and welcome to the teams who come to share the work of construction. www.elporvenir.org
They also work to re-forest the surrounding countryside because the maintenance of forest is essential to maintaining the water table.
The organization supports sustainable development, working in harmony with the ecosystem and the population, to enhance the lives of the people. They also provide public health education, as well as education programs about protecting the environment.
As I unpack the relics of my life in West Hollywood that no longer exists, I contemplate what I have left behind, and what I have found. It is a study of contrasts, and not just pertaining to weather.
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If there is an icon of all of that is wrong with West Hollywood (if not southern California), it is the whole mess with Tara, which I have written about extensively. (See "Elsie, Tara and the Whole Circus" )
 The house will be covered on the west and on the south by Senior housing units and a “pocket park” will front the manse. The interior will be reconfigured. By Ryan Gierach. |
Elsie was herself a relic of a life and a time that no longer exists. In her time, people were not such jaded "realists." There was a sense of romance and idealism that helped people get through some really awful times. Most people did not aspire to rampant material acquisition, but rather to be comfortable and well fed, to do work that was meaningful, to have loving relationships, and to contribute to one's community.
I'm sure that after the city declared her beloved Tara a "Cultural Resource" she imagined that it would be held intact, possibly turned into a Cultural Center, or a museum of how early Californians once lived, in ranches, surrounded by trees and living things, not concrete and steel.
Being a relic from a time when a person's word was their "bond", a guarantee of performance and fulfillment, she took it for granted that she didn't need to put any restrictions on the deed about future use.
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These days, those ideals seem a bit out of date, particularly in West Hollywood, and much of the rest of the country as well. I think it' is why people are so disenchanted by government and politics.
 The north side of the building, which will framed by a structure accommodating the 27 senior citizen apartments. By Ryan Gierach. |
In spite of hundreds of people protesting the plans to turn Tara into Laurel Place, and the whole deal having the appearance of a very "shady" outcome, the city is going to destroy the place to build even more housing. Yes, it's for seniors, but how many West Hollywood seniors will actually get to use it?
The people who will most likely profit from this development are the contractors, the architects, the construction suppliers, all of whom will appear (sooner or later) as campaign contributors to the re-election campaigns of John, John and Abbe.
What we will never know is how much of the money will end up in off-shore accounts and other forms of pay-offs to certain members of city council, and/or their friends, who clearly view ever increasing ranks of middle and lower income residents and small business owners as "Relics from a past that doesn't exist anymore."
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There are times when regular politics will not do,
and this is one of those times. -- Molly Ivins
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Edward "Ed" Garren, MFT is a Family Therapist, justice activist, former West Hollywood City Council candidate, writer and sojourner.
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He is originally from the Tampa Bay area of central Florida. Ed has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Frontiers news magazine, and other books, including "Out of My Mind", a pictorial memoir by Kris Nelson. He is currently working on a book about Addiction in America.
Ed Garren can be reached, even in hie North Western haunts, at