Love Among the Ruins — Fish, Flowers, and Friends

By Colleen O’Connor

Disappointed in the Oscars?  Unhappy your football team lost the Super Bowl. Or that your candidates lost in the primary.  You are not alone.

Americans are overwhelmingly unhappy.

Why?  Let me count the ways.  Maybe count just the first among the heap of reasons.

The majority of voters do not want what is coming, in the 2.0 Presidential rematch of Biden v. Trump with the cruelty, debased language, hallow promises and dumb-downed promises that are mostly head fakes.

No trust of either candidate.

A new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds 36% of Americans trust Donald Trump to do a better job leading the country as president, while 33% trust Joe Biden and 30% trust neither.

Over half are appalled by the death and destruction in the Israel/Hamas war. And want a permanent “cease fire.”

‘In all, 50% of U.S. adults now believe Israel’s military offensive has gone beyond what it should have, the poll found. That’s up from 40% in an AP-NORC poll conducted in November,’ according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Others object, strenuously, to the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and the march towards what Governor Gavin Newsom calls “the war against women.”  That is, no IVF, no birth control, no abortions regardless of harm to the mother rape or incest.

Then there is the unsavory history that still lingers in courthouses of sexual predators, i.e. Jeffrey Epstein (his accomplish, Ghislaine Maxwell is penning her book from prison), Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and seemingly countless others in churches, synagogues, schools, coaching rooms, and playgrounds.

Add to these the real fears of inflation, illegal immigration, repeat school shootings, random acts of violence, and the mayhem of gang related drug wars.

Never mind the covert war among billionaires dueling to control failing industries and even countries.

What’s a person to do?  Hide out?  Shelter in place permanently?  Join the mob attacks?  Or change the channels?

Where, in the great title of a George Cukor, Katherine Hepburn/Lawrence Olivia film, to find “Love Among the Ruins?”

Watch the Weather Channel?  Climate change makes San Diego look like Paradise.

So, too, do the amazing talents and discoveries among our residents.

“A team of scientists including Ben Frable of UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography discovered a new species of tropical fish during an expedition to remote Mexican islands.

“The fish, named the Halichoeres sanchezi or the tailspot wrasse, likely only lives on the rugged Revillagigedo Archipelago off Mexico’s Pacific coast. The volcanic island chain is sometimes referred to as the “Mexican Galapagos” for its endemic biodiversity — meaning organisms that are native and restricted to a certain place.

Visit the Birch Aquarium.

Or look into the discovery of a 100 + new underwater species in other parts of the ocean.

Then, there is the expectant (happy) news that China might return the Panda to our “World Famous” San Diego Zoo.  Simple diplomacy?

Or how about, the magnificent flower blooms in the Anza Borrego desert, Leucadia and Carlsbad, or at your local store.  And the fresh fruit in abundance all over the city.  Not available for many parts of the country or the globe.

Go outside.   See the beauty for yourself.   Like Orchids.  Try Leucadia’s Andy’s Orchids, home to more than 750,000 plants from every corner of the world.  The Largest Rare Orchid Collection in the US.

And the ocean, beaches, bay, mountains, forest and parks.  Especially Balboa Park amid the Japanese Cherry Blossoms and also Carlsbad flower fields now in bloom.

Go for a whale watching trip from Shelter Island.  ‘Tis the season.

To find San Diego’s “Love Among the Ruins,” just step outside and admire the fish, flowers and friends.