Mine and Everett's Mesa Verde

Article/issue of the Four Corner's arts perspective 

got me thinking about Cortez. This image hung on my

bedroom wall for years. Great article about the art at 

http://artsperspective.com/artsperspective/?p=712 .

I once wrote a chapter for a Mesa Verde memory book about Everett Ruess and how his life impacted mine -- by influencing my move to Cortez, Colo.

Today, I had an invite to attend a Mesa Verde Museum Association event and flinched when I couldn't attend: I love Mesa Verde. I love its history. I love that it marks the beginning of my married life.

In short: there is no Ruess media I want to discuss today. I would rather reminisce about Mesa Verde.

I find it a bit ironic that I'm now living in the "land of enchantment." I'm not feeling very enchanted here. Not after living in the shadow of the former capital of the American southwest.

I miss the tourists. I miss the archaeologists. And I actually miss Cortez politics and the weekly onslaught of letters to the editor from the same three cranky Repubs and Demos.

The brand of politics I experience in northern New Mexico is one of hegemonic boredom. There is rarely a letter to an editor -- with any hint of civil discord.

Am I the one who will rock the boat? Not likely. My voice, like Everett's, echoes in the desert with a small hope of someday finding an audience. And for what purpose? To be a famed writer like Wallace Stegner or perhaps a Pulitzer winning reporter? Not likely.

My dreams are sometimes food (to quote the new Cookie Monster). And at the moment, my dreams feel like the time Everett's burrow floundered in the Mancos River.

When I stood ...

(to be continued)