What Might Have Caught Steve & Jaime’s Eyes

Artists enhance Ojai's natural beauty.

A community is more than just a cluster of houses and buildings.  It does more than provide necessary goods and services.  A village, town, or city radiates the spirits of its inhabitants.  Ojai’s downtown shines with an unconventional artistic vision.  Murals and statues mingle with the town’s natural beauty, inspiring residents and visitors.  With so much to draw the eye, one’s footsteps naturally slow when walking the streets of this high desert community.

They celebrate Ojai's heritage.

In the Six Million Dollar Man story “The Bionic Woman,” written by Kenneth Johnson, Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers reunite after several years apart in Libbey Park.  During their hour-long walk through town, I suspect their attention remained mostly upon each other.  Yet they must have stopped occasionally, perhaps near statues and fountains such as these.  

Art pours from the creator’s heart.  It radiates ideas and emotions.  In its presence, we may find ourselves overwhelmed by joy or sadness.  Tears spring to our eyes unbidden.  Our hearts beat faster.  Thoughts race through our brains.  In such moments, we not only reinterpret the past and present, but glimpse potential futures.  The artwork in Ojai—whether it was a painting, a statue, or a fountain—increased our appreciation for everything else we saw there, and fired us with possibilities for how we might enhance our own house and yard. 

They fire us with
possibilities

I’ve never seen the Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman reunion movies, but apparently Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers married in the final one: "Bionic Ever After?" Perhaps Steve and Jaime set up house in Ojai, and still walk through (or speed through, or leap over) its downtown.  Perhaps they sometimes linger beside the same creations that stilled our own feet, reconsidering their present, and glimpsing possibilities for their future together.  It’s a pleasant thought, even if it’s only whimsy.  

Ojai is a thriving town, and provides welcome escape for many Los Angeles residents.  The whimsical nature of Ojai's inhabitants finds its way into their artwork, landscaping, and buildings.  The community's attractiveness suggests that everyone needs a little whimsy now and then, don’t you think?

Dragon Dave

Walking in Steve & Jaime’s Footsteps

The entrance to Libbey Park.

Do you know how it is when you reunite with a long-time friend and it feels as if you have never been apart?  You still feel the weight of all those years without the other in your life.  Yet you also feel the closeness you once shared.  It’s such a relief to not just talk, but to share the deepest, most personal thoughts and feelings.  Suddenly, from your mouth come admissions you would never tell those with whom you work and regularly interact.

In the Six Million Dollar Man story “The Bionic Woman,” written by Kenneth Johnson, that’s the way Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers feel when they reunite in Libbey Park.  A connection sparked between them long ago, and time has not extinguished it.  They talk about the busyness of their lives, and crow their accomplishments, yet they also feel an aching emptiness.  They realize that, despite all they have done—so many mountains climbed, so many goals achieved—they are incredibly lonely.  Thus it feels natural, as they walk together, for each to put an arm around the other.  Time passes by unnoticed, and suddenly they hear the honking of a car’s horn.  They find themselves at the park entrance, and in the street a man steps out of his car.  Her ride is here: Jaime has to go.

"Let me tell you about my accomplishments!"

As we wandered through Libbey Park, a woman walking her dog noticed our cameras.  She stopped and asked, “Are you holidaying this weekend?”  We smiled and told her yes.  “It is beautiful here, isn’t it?”  We had to admit it was.  “There’s so much to see in Ojai,” she told us, and after talking a little more, she wished us well, and resumed her walk with her pet.  In “The Bionic Woman,” Steve and Jaime’s feet carry them all over town.  We don’t see the majority of their walk, or what they see along the way.  I suspect that they didn’t notice the surroundings much either, as their eyes, and their hearts, were so focused upon each other.

"Walk along with me,
won't you?"

I’m not sure what most of the locals thought as we strolled through the park, taking photographs of what, to them, must have seemed rather ordinary.  I’m sure we stood out as visitors: being so close to Los Angeles, the population of Ojai swells on weekends.  But we didn’t travel to Ojai solely to relive moments from a TV show.  We were also celebrating a special moment in our lives, one that will link us forever.  Unlike Steve and Jaime, we didn’t feel the crushing weight of years apart.  Instead, we celebrated lives spent together.  So, in addition to talking, we also took photographs, so that in the future we could look back and remember how much we enjoyed visiting Libbey Park, and walking in Steve and Jaime’s footsteps. 

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

Libbey Park