‘Jimmy Dunne Says’

In the greatest town paper in the country a few weeks ago, I was yapping about the amazing, miraculous Arctic wood frog.

I’ve got another one for you. This one is a shocker.

The Immortal Jellyfish. They’re adorable little orange jellyfish, happily floating around the Mediterranean. Lots of ’em.

Here’s the crazy thing. They never die. What?

True story.

In their old age, our little buddies swim to the bottom of the big blue sea, shed everything they don’t absolutely need.

Kind of meditate down there, thinking about how life was so lovely.

Next thing you know, they’re “born again.” They sprout a brand-new coat of paint, swim back up—with another swing at a new life.

And our little pals do it over, and over, and over again.

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Made me think.

Swimming right in our sea of Pacific Palisades are some spectacular, miraculous wonders of the world.

They’ve spent a lifetime selflessly making our town—a town.

What a gift to all of us.

Here are a few of my favorite town jellyfish.

Mike Lanning

Mr. Boy Scouts in the Palisades. Absolutely incredible human being.

You talk about making a difference in people’s lives—this guy has generationally impacted Palisadian families.

He’s been the scoutmaster of Troop 223 in town since 1953.

That’s a long time ago. The transistor radio, polio vaccine and birth control pills weren’t invented yet.

Since then, he’s been a nurturing, incredibly memorable part of 1,500 scouts’ lives—and over 1,000 Eagle Scouts’ lives.

He’s 92, and still so full of spit, and joy, and happy—and shaking things up.

He still coaches kids on how to get into high schools and colleges, talks to college admissions officers all over the country pitching his kids, and teaches national scouting conferences all over the country…

Mike’s joy?

Seeing a young kid put on that uniform and walk away from their troop one day with a new-found confidence. Wanting to serve others because they know how good it feels to make others happy.

Lucky, lucky our town that Mike Lanning strolled through our garden.

Maryam Zar

Lucille Ball said, “If you want to get something done, ask a busy person to do it.”

That’s our Palisades Wonder Woman, Maryam.

She’s been busy accomplishing extraordinary things since she was a kid in Iran.

Crushed it in college and law school at Pepperdine. Editor of the “Iran News” back in Iran. Built from the ground-up Womenfound, standing up for women around the world.

While being a great mom to three kids in town, she started running everything under the sun in our city and town. The through-lines—organizations helping women, small businesses, students and children, and the homeless.

As her morning alarm goes off today, she’s the town’s Honorary Fire Chief, she’s shaking it up on the Park Advisory Board, she’s on the YMCA board—and chairing PPCC (for the second time)! Whow!

All with the biggest, prettiest, happiest, full-of-love smile on her face.

Bob Benton and PPBA

Thirty-five years ago, the fantastic Bob Benton, an absolute lover of baseball, had a dream for the kids of the Palisades.

As all kinds of club sports were starting to allure kids and parents to drive to God-only-knows-where to play against total strangers, Bob and his buddies decided to build a wonderful program to keep the kids and games right in our own backyard.

Like the good old days.

Pacific Palisades Baseball Association was born.

Fast-forward to today. 12,000 Palisades kids have played on the Field of Dreams at the park—celebrating the best of the Palisades.

Want to take a snapshot of the Palisades? See moms and dads, brothers and sisters, and grandmas and grampas cheering on those they love from the baseball stands.

Or get the greatest hamburger ever made in the world at the “Bat and Grill” cooked by one of the sweetest pea moms and dads.

Cheers to tons, and I mean tons, of parents who have been on the board or coached one of the teams. Gargantuan cheers to Mike Skinner, Rob Lamb, Rick McGeagh, Bob Levitt and Liz Denham (the Wolfgang Puck of the Pancake Breakfast for years and years). So many more moms and dads I’m not mentioning.

—————–

I may have to do one more of these.

Too many spectacular jellyfish that are just lighting it up in our town.

What a difference they make.

What a difference you make.

Don’t let the news on the TV or your iPhone get you down in the dumps.

Walk outside your front door—and take a big, deep breath.

How lucky we are to have the gift of such a wonderful thing in life …

The gift of our town.

Jimmy Dunne is a modern-day Renaissance Man; a hit songwriter (28 million hit records), screenwriter/producer of hit television series, award-winning author, an entrepreneur—and a Palisadian “Citizen of the Year.” You can reach him at j@jimmydunne.com or jimmydunne.substack.com.