Precious Places That Need Taking Care of

The funny thing about living in such a naturally beautiful place as Ventura County is that we tend to take it for granted. It is all part of our great back yard.

We all too often drive alongside the ocean oblivious to its stunning beauty, preoccupied by thoughts of root canals or business meetings at the end of the trip. Verdant mountain canyons bloom and then wither beyond our reach or our everyday thoughts.

Until tragedy strikes.

Then a raging brushfire becomes a horrific and humbling reminder that it all can be ruined, disappear, be taken away. By arson, or even by natural causes such as lightning.

Point Mugu State Park--home of some of the best hiking trails in the country--is our great back yard that was immolated, reduced to cinders.

We had to go back. Not only to see our once-familiar place but also, in the end, with luck, to meet ourselves and decide what such natural riches really mean to us.

Staff writer Leonard Reed, an inveterate hiker of these parts, was quickly overwhelmed: “I was expecting something eerie and destroyed and saw just that. But the more I moved through it the more I saw life springing back with force and beauty. After a few days of it, I realized I was witnessing a great rebirth of these mountains.

“While many suffered, and much needs to be reviewed in the way of encroaching development, the fires of last month are today’s great lesson in humility. These are precious places that need taking care of.”

HOLIDAY THEMES

Loss and renewal are fitting themes for a Thanksgiving day.

And so is exercise. And for those in serious need of some after today’s big meal, you might consider a bike ride along the Ojai Valley Trail, featured in Jane Hulse’s Jaunts column.

This 8.8-mile trail goes from Foster Park, to downtown Ojai. En route are staggering views of the Topa Topa Mountains.

Those too full to do much more than breathe, might want to check out Todd Everett’s review of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” Rupert Holmes’ adaptation of the unfinished novel by Charles Dickens. The Conejo Players Theater in Thousand Oaks presents this comic salute to the turn-of-the-century English music hall.

And at the end of each show, which runs through Dec. 18, members of the audience get to vote on who committed the crime.

That brings us back full circle, to loss and renewal--and to the holiday. Here’s hoping your Thanksgiving is full of life.