Ben Lee Properties — August 2020 Newsletter

Issue: August 2020  |  Cheviot Hills & Beverlywood, Los Angeles

This Month's Article

By Ben Lee H ello, August. How is everyone feeling?

Worried? Stressed? Resigned? Frustrated?

All of the above? This entire experience affects people so differently.

Even members of the same family staying at home together have varied emotional responses at any given hour on any given day.

It’s a lot to unpack and most everyone I know is justifiably on edge.

There is so much conflict amongst neighbors, within families, between the country as a whole.

For every fan of Dr. Fauci, there is someone else who thinks he’s too negative.

I’ve heard from a handful of people that they still see neighbors out and about without wearing masks.

Some blame the recent protests as being catalysts for spreading the virus, others believe it’s the smaller at-home parties over the holidays that play a larger role in the current spike of cases.

It’s hard and exhausting and I know we are all in it together but everyone has a different threshold for maintaining sanity during such uncertain times.

I can’t even imagine the pressure that must come from sharing a home with a medical worker or elderly relative.

Sometimes listening to the news fills me with anxiety because over and over again we hear how awful it is right now in California.

Living under the threat of returning to a phase one lock down is troubling, too.

But, despite all that, what gives me a sense of calm (besides an evening cocktail or three) is when I slow down and tell myself I’m doing an OK job.

I take solace in the fact that I am doing the best I can.

Here’s what I choose to control in an ever changing and chaotic world: I wear a mask when I leave the house and I sanitize my hands and stay six feet apart when I’m with other people.

I turn off the news if it’s been a tumultuous day.

I try to keep my sellers safe by shooting videos and conducting showings when they are not at home.

I try to keep my buyers safe by only letting in one person (or a couple) to see a property at a time.

I will often go on listing presentations over Zoom if meeting in person is not ideal.

When we have a friend or family over, we stay outside, keep it small and keep our distance.

We were blessed to welcome a new member to our family: the long awaited delivery of our new baby (named Peloton) allowing me the luxury and ability to exercise at home.

When it comes to avoiding the coronavirus, I remain vigilant and can feel pretty good about my efforts.

However, that’s where the selfcongratulations end.

I feel like a terrible parent when I add up all the hours my ten year old spends playing video games.

Every rule we once had pertaining to electronic devices went squarely out the window once the quarantine hit.

I have this vision of other parents signing their children up for amazing on-line camps, classes and lectures and we are doing none of that.

I imagine there are some kids who are spending their summer busily finding the cure for Covid-19.

Ours are not. These should be social, sunshine-filled days spent with friends at the mall, beach, or restaurants- possibly Ubering around town to parties, spontaneous sleepovers or weekends away.

There should be those summer camp smiles that appear after hitting the bulls-eye in archery, riding a horse for the first time or mastering jet skiing.

Instead of all that childhood joy, our boys are sleeping until about noon, spending way too much time with their parents and probably plotting out ways to start college a few years early just to get some much needed space.

I feel guilty about not being a makeshift camp-counselor for them this summer, like I’m depriving them of a necessary childhood rite-of-passage because of a pandemic I have little to no control over.

I find myself getting swept up in this ‘perfect parent’ myth and count all the ways I’m currently failing them and worry about the social/emotional damage being done, evidence of which we may not see for decades.

But then I try to take a deep breath and basically tell myself to stop freaking out.

If, at the end of the day, my children missed out on a party or two and were on their phones way too much but stayed healthy this summer- that’s really all that matters.

I’m no therapist but please let me give everyone reading this permission to relax the rules when it comes to raising children this year.

I swear, it’s liberating. They may be missing some things (a lot of things) and their formal education may have taken a dive, but what they lack in structured, organized activities perhaps they’ll make up for in resilience, creativity and the gift of time to do absolutely nothing.

Embrace and allow yourself to become the parent you once might have silently judged with superiority or disdain.

In other words, the next time you find yourself allowing them too much of what you once deemed unacceptable… whether it’s another TV show, another dessert or their eyes glued to a screen for way too long, just ask yourself: why the heck not?

Think of it as celebrating another day of safety.

Because, with so much out of our control, all we can do is try and get by and maybe for once in our over-scheduled, Westside hyper-parenting trap lives, that’s good enough.

Life right now is hard enough and I can attest that giving in a bit to them is like a perfect, priceless gift you are actually giving to yourself.

It’s a well earned moment of not hearing them whine or complain about something.

You deserve it! So, whether you are old, young, an essential worker or just a local realtor trying to keep a roof overhead, this is not the time to judge one another too harshly.

We all deserve a much needed break. At the end of the day, staying safe is the destination.

If the journey getting there is paved with a few extra treats along the way (for parents as well as kids) well maybe that’s not such a terrible thing after all.

So, cocktail time and a Peloton mountain road it is!

Cheers to you for doing the best you can, neighbors.

Featured Listings

Community & More

Cheviot Hills happenings – Westside Stories – If you enjoy reading these vignettes each month, you may want to check out my father-in-law’s book, Westside Stories.

It’s a memoir/history of growing up on the Westside of Los Angeles in the 1940s and 1950s with great photos, anecdotes and stories.

Perfect for the history buff/enthusiast in your family!

It’s available for purchase on Amazon, just search for Westside Stories by Michael Harris.

By Ben Lee T hank you to all those who entered our raffle to win a $50 gift card to one of South Robertson’s favorite restaurants: Undergrind.

Congratulations to Toni Lagunoff! You are the lucky winner this month.

To all those who entered but didn’t win, don’t worry!

There is always another raffle around the corner.

For August, we are pleased to offer a $50 gift card to Postmates.

That way you can opt to order a meal from anywhere in the neighborhood who will deliver right to you!

In order to enter, simply send me an email (ben@benleeproperties. com) and write ‘POSTMATES’ in the subject line.

That’s it! We will select a winner at the end of the month and notify you soon after.

Good luck and congratulations once again to Toni.

Enjoy your treats from Undergrind! – RAFFLE – By Michael Harris M any persons today compare the social disruption of Covid 19 with the problems of 1918 when the Spanish Flu was rampant.

About 675,000 died as a result of the Spanish Flu which is a number that we can all hope will not be approached in these times by the novel corona virus.

One of the major steps taken to battle the flu in 1918 was the closing of public schools.

Just as it is now controversial it was so also in 1918.

A study done in 2007 by the University of Michigan Medical School which considered the affects of school closure on the epidemic , concluded that closing schools earlier and for a longer period of time blunted the impact of the epidemic in 1918.

In the US most schools in 1918 were closed and the effect was deemed to be a beneficial factor in fighting the virus.

Of course, social conditions were different then: fewer mothers worked outside the home and it was the time of World War I when patriotism and trust in government was high.

There was not the same type of partisan political climate that pervades today.

So while school closures to fight a viral epidemic is nothing new and it was found to be a beneficial tool in 1918, the situation today is so different that school closures may be less acceptable today than a century ago.

Hamilton Fun Facts By Ben Lee I ’m sure many of you who subscribe to Disney+ has had the pleasure of watching Hamilton the musical from the comfort of your own home this summer.

Borrowing from a recent Buzzfeed article by Nora Dominick, here are just a few fun trivia facts you might not have known about this world-renowned theatrical treasure. 1.

Two extra bars of music had to be added after the line: “Immigrants, we get the job done!” because the ensuing applause was so loud and long it drowned out the next few lines of sung dialogue. 2.

Lin Manuel Miranda wrote “Dear Theodosia,” that beautiful lullaby sung to a newborn, after he and his wife adopted their dog Tobillo.

Their actual son in real life hadn’t been born yet. 3.

The line in “Your Obedient Servant” that goes: “Here’s an itemized list of 30 years of disagreements,” is actually an homage to the character Leslie Knope played by Amy Poehler in Parks and Recreation.

Lin Manuel Miranda was quoted to say, “it was a Leslie Knope thing to do!” 4.

The rap-offs as seen in both the “Cabinet Battle #1 and #2” were inspired by Eminem in 8 Mile and Jay Z’s The Blueprint. 5.

Lin wrote the melody that was used for “The Story of Tonight” when he was only 16 years old. 6.

Lin and I both are graduates of Wesleyan University! (that’s not actually part of the Buzzfeed list but figured I’d add it in anyway.