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I Heart SCV
Life and Death - the Usual
April, 2011 - Issue #78
This is shaping up to be the year of four seasons. With actual snow in January (and almost-snow in late February!) to mark winter, spring seems all the springier. We look at the world with new eyes. You've probably experienced it: Everything appears in a kind of dreamlike, ethereal haze. It may be a touch of spring fever, but more likely hay fever from all the pollen borne on vernal breezes. The itchy, teary eyes and pre-sneeze squinting act like a softening filter for the whole world.

Maybe that's why it's easiest to fall in love this time of year - nobody's seeing straight. The idyllic backdrop of new blossoms, birds singing and fresh green hillsides doesn't hurt. There's plenty of new life, no question. But the attentive will notice that spring's abundance and vitality are served with a hearty side of death. Wildflowers in bloom soon shrivel and set seed, and all those birds are winged reapers from the perspective of a juicy caterpillar. And of course there are Easter and Passover - about as life and death as it gets. Looking at life and death around Santa Clarita sounds dramatic, but this time of year, it's what we expect.

Spring Green
A downside of spring is the weather. It's too mild, the season that discomforts us with its comfort - do we use the heater or AC? Perhaps it's safer to stay outside, where temperature control is out of our hands.

If you're feeling restless, a hike is in store. Whether along the Santa Clara River or in some shady canyon, that intense spring green of new growth is everywhere. While on the trail, an amusing thought to share with your hiking pals is that one out of every three species of plants you see is found nowhere on earth but California. Biologists estimate some 2,000 plants are unique to our home state alone, including many of our familiar red-barked manzanitas, spring-blooming lupines and oaks.

If you prefer puttering around the wilderness that is your own backyard, you can still enjoy the flush of spring life. Take inspiration from the Dervaes family, living just 30 miles away in Pasadena. These "urban homesteaders" have been growing about 5,000 pounds of food per year in their 4,000-square-foot garden. But a far more modest garden - even a cherry tomato plant in a pot- will do. The crucial thing is taking in some of that life-affirming green, spring's tonic.

Bones, Bodies
We're not used to encountering the dead in our everyday lives - excepting those of us who work in morgues or mortuaries. But the deceased have been turning up in unexpected places lately. The Sheriff's Department investigated a man who apparently killed himself with prescription drugs in the wash; his body was spotted by someone walking there. In January, there was the grisly discovery of a suicide in Newhall followed by another in February. Sheriffs thought they were dealing with a homicide when a clean-up crew in Placerita Canyon uncovered bones from a body that had been rolled in carpet and partially buried. A death had indeed occurred, but it ended up being canine rather than human. (Who does that?) Finally, Larry McElvany was found dead near the Canyon Country Library some weeks ago. His distraught family said that he had troubles with alcohol and drugs.

Even as the world grows warmer and brighter, death is a relentless reality. What's particularly upsetting about these recent cases is that suicide and perishing out on the streets seem preventable. Running across a human body is a shocking reminder that there are more people struggling around us than we care to realize.

The Quick and the Dead
The two meanings of "quick" - the usual, "fast," and the more archaic, "alive" - aren't so unrelated. This was true in the frontier days when the fastest draw tended to stay alive for one day longer, thus the title of that bad Western movie. You can think about this play on words at the Cowboy Festival coming April 27 to May 1.

As usual, it will be hosted at Melody Ranch. The event seems inseparable from the venue, though the first Cowboy Poetry Festival would have been held in the Hart High Auditorium were it not for the 1994 earthquake. (It unleashed asbestos, so they moved to the ranch instead; thanks, Northridge Thrust Fault!). Santa Clarita's Planning Commission and City Council have been weighing plans to list Melody Ranch and other locales as historic landmarks. There hasn't been opposition from the ranch, but the idea isn't sitting well with other property owners. They want to be able to sell without restrictions that their buildings must be preserved. The SCV Historical Society says such measures are necessary to protect our cultural heritage. The debate will continue to walk the fine line between the life and death so apparent this spring - preserving the history we heart as a kind of living dead.
This column is intended as satire and a (sometimes successful) attempt at humor. Suggestions, catty comments and veiled threats intended for the author can be e-mailed to iheartscv@insidescv.com.
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