It's Amazing

One of the greatest pleasures of living in a metropolis is having a City Park. A place where denizens congregate, exercise, picnic, some read, others stroll, and bring their children and pets.

London has Regents Park, Madrid has El Retiro, Barcelona has Guell, Berlin has Tiergarten, and New York has Central Park.

Los Angeles has Griffith Park, on hills that twist and turn that is not walking friendly.

While I dislike everything about gardening, I revere being in nature. I enjoy parks as a venue to people watch. I hike on the weekends but during the week enjoy walking with Coco in San Marino’s Lacy Park. It’s small but it’s about the closest thing to brushing away suburbia bland and feeling like a real city park minus the sleaze element. It’s probably because it’s populated with families and each time I pass the children’s area I recall the memories of taking my nephews to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Golden Gate Park is fantastic. It made such an impression on me when I lived there that I wrote a short story about it. My protagonist was an Art student who is depressed about a breakup. She gets a job for the summer taking care of a little boy from a wealthy family. Being with the child and exploring Golden Gate Park together brings them close and their sense of play is heightened every day. The child gets closer to the girl than he is to his mother and by the time the summer draws to a close when it’s time for her to leave the little boy hangs onto her skirt pleading with cries for her to stay.

Living in San Francisco, taking my oldest nephew to the Park became my distraction. I loved playing with and teaching him but at that time I felt that I was pithering my life away. But that’s how creativity works. In your downtime when you think you’re not achieving your subconscious is gaining momentum for the awakening that is about to take place. It can feel like a volcano about to erupt. First tension builds and then when the lava breaks loose, a stream sets in and pours out the unexpected. The key is not to control and let it happen on its own time.

Being in my nephew’s presence inspired me to write a screenplay about a little girl who has an affinity with hats. They are her playmates and when she hears of a ban on hats across the pond she sets off to encounter the injustice and makes a wrong into a right.

Many may not know that the carousel in Golden Gate Park was originally installed in Lincoln Park in Los Angeles. Constructed in 1888, the carousel was moved to the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island before being installed in Golden Gate Park in 1941.

The carousel in Golden Gate Park is near Robin Williams Meadow, the Sharon Art Studio, and, Children’s Playground, the almost million-dollar renovated ride has glistening, brightly painted figures designed to look like animals, both real and imagined.

The iconic Park is a place of fantasy and beauty. It holds far more than I could ever describe here with slightly over 1,000 acres, from bucolic lakes and meadows to vibrant activity destinations.

So there you have it, a little bit of urban history and insight as to how creative juices can set off a spark if we let them be. It’s amazing how we all have this apparatus that works beautifully if we put it to the test.