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Ray and I have had the good fortune to be tourists in New York City, observers in an exotic land, lived in DC and witnessed the voices of diversity, but never in my life have I experienced the diversity of thought and socioeconomic levels in such a short time and in such a small place.
Community dinner with people of the earth, wine tasting with the affluent, dinner with the cross section of farmers and business men across the Rocky Mountains and a view of the valley that’s etched in my memory forever. And that was just the first few days. Then there was the Olathe Sweet Corn Fest, a community meeting that brought it all together, dining near an orchard, and a Rodeo that dug it’s spurs in at a time in American History that reminds us of our humanity.
And that was the time we spent outside of the studio this week! Within these creative walls, we got so much done, I wrote so many letters, Ray posted on his blog, and we ate a lot of peaches in the process.
What was I thinking when I asked Addy, “I noticed you have a Farm to Table meeting on Monday…do you have a visual practitioner capturing the meeting?” It’s a small town of 1,500 in rural Colorado. We were standing in a Trading Post full of farm good and products crafted from the surrounded land. Duh, I’m a city girl asking a naturalist about flour and graphic recording? Oops. No, the answer was no. “Well then, do you mind if I hang up some paper and capture the ideas of the group?”
I loved working on Neuland’s brown pinboard paper. What what was better was the vision, love, and sense of community that came together around that table that night. What they started on Monday will be an investment in sustainability for future generations to come.
I thought I was so cool. I’ve taught a few people in the past week how to use Zoom and I was getting better with the multi-device login to use a spectator camera. In a last-minute switch between laptop to iPad the recording didn’t take and I had no idea until after a power-packed hour of lettering with an international audience. Ugh!
Thanks to these beautifully captured sketchnotes by Michael Clayton, I was able to recreate the call and post the video on my YouTube page.
During our tour of Paonia on the first day I noticed a local Ortho-Bionomy practitioner’s office. This week I had the great opportunity to have my first session in over 6 months. It was fun to learn about the mutual people we know and it reminded me of my own training that I started in 2004 at the New Mexico Academy of Healing Arts and when I supported the Society of Ortho-Bionomy with their newsletter.
Pickin’ in the Park
Anyone have a stuffed bird? I was hoping to garner a big one on my shoulder as I wrote out kids names in calligraphy. But the antebellum hat with the large rose and bird worked too.
Ray played the superhero and orchestrated the dance of the piñata at Pickin’ at the Park where kids’ activities are organized by the North Fork Valley Creative Coalition.
It was a day of shock and fear as the events in Charlottesville unfolded. The thought of humanity dropping to an all-time low, wondering how values can be so different among us, how so many have not evolved in their thinking. When Ray suggested a few days ago that we visit the County Fair Rodeo, it seemed like a good idea. But when we went it seemed so surreal.
A hard-earned trophy sits as it’s probable owner is playing on the merry-go-round in what Ray calls “one of the last non-compliant playgrounds” in the country. What fun! Honestly, the Mutton Busting event was both hilarious and traumatic. Those excited kids had no idea the agony of defeat they were about to experience. I wondered when the fear set in for each of them: seeing other crying kids being hauled out of the arena, having gear strapped onto them by a stranger, being picked up by a gigantic cowboy they may not know and placed in a pen with a trapped animal, or when they fell and got mildly trampled. Both girls and boys, big and small earned a trophy and a memory hopefully they will never forget…until next year.
I dig a good dive into culture and seeing people in their element. It didn’t bother me that I was the only person wearing hiking pants and dock shoes or that people were staring at me. It was the prayer that the announcer made before the event to bless the participants of the rodeo and their “animal athletes” that surprised me. I’m glad he thought of the cowboys and spectators. What I was taken aback by was there was no mention of those who died in Charlottesville or what was happening in our country. In a packed arena of 99% white people, I instantly questioned if this was an act of forgetfulness, ignorance, or blatant disregard. I reminded myself that it’s important not to mix what’s happening in Virginia with the population here. And that it’s important that we not combine what’s happening with those who are actively spreading hate and the president who gave them a voice in the first place with those who may have voted for him or those who share the same values. I can’t help but wonder how we will ever cross these great divides. When I was in DC, my job was to encourage group participatory decision making. With a background of Appreciative Inquiry I focus on the unifying lifeforces that help us create the realities we want. All personal beliefs aside, as a professional and a human what do I do with this? Other than say that racism is not okay? I could only imagine myself in Charlottesville screaming, “this is not okay!” What will it take to make this stop? There doesn’t seem to be a rock bottom or an undeniable truth for those to see what they are doing is wrong.
By being a white woman, if I just do what I can to cope or work to make the world I live in better makes me a target for the social stigma that I have white privilege. There is no winner in this. And the forces and powers that be are leveraging us against one another. It’s time to take our power back. We have missed all of our previous opportunities, now its time. Please, do what you can in your power to pull yourself together to make a difference in your and other people’s lives.
Leaving this place better than when we found it is the least we can do for future generations, for ourselves and each other.
I created this drawing the night the rally started in Charlottesville. Only I didn’t know it was happening at the time.
The Creative Journey Has Just Begun
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