Thursday, March 24, 2022 (today’s lectionary)
Pastures of plenty in New Mexico’s high country
Gunsmoke is on TV. It’s been on (muted) since I checked in to the Guadalupe Inn on Agua Fria Avenue in Santa Fe hours ago. Matt Dillon in black and white is a comforting presence for me, now that I’m in desperado country.
Walk in all the ways that I command you so that you may prosper. But they obeyed NOT, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts.
Chester just limped into the saloon and sang a song with one chord on a borrowed guitar. He’s hoping to see one of the showgirls for a few minutes after she gets off work.
I notice how much I’m limping when I walk. Parking is difficult in Santa Fe, so I parked my car in front of my room and set out on my feet to an Italian restaurant. Last week I promised my friend Jim I’d begin walking a mile every day and doing some stretching exercises before and after. When am I going to find time to do that?
Well, it isn’t time, really, it’s gumption and will. When I pay attention I walk straight and without tilting (my friend called it the old man’s shuffle). But I do need practice.
Let us kneel before the Lord who made us, for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture.
Agua Fria means “cold water” in Spanish. The air Wednesday night felt like 33 degrees, although I walked to the restaurant, Andiamo (“let’s go! Hurry up!”) in the sunshine. It’s rated high by Wine Spectator for its wine list, but I didn’t drink wine. I ate chicken piccata, which was wonderful. The kitchen did not live up to the restaurant’s name, though, and I was there two hours.
In a table just behind me three folks were discussing their books. Memoirs. They had trouble with their agents, with their publishers, and with their own writing blocks. One of them, the female among them, suggested Amazon self publishing. At that, I turned around and joined the conversation, excited. “That’s what I use!”
You write books too? Yes, I said. Nine so far. I hoped they might consider the self-publishing route. Kindle books and paperbacks are easy to produce, once you get the hang of it. I appreciated their friendly interest and turned back around. I was reading The Texas Ranger, itself a memoir published in 1927, a beautiful old hardback my friend Mike gave me. Both of us love Texas history.
The cook brought out a big plate for me. Chicken piccata, I asked? This is spaghetti bolognese, he said. It looked beautiful. It was my second choice, actually. But it was not chicken piccata. He apologized and took it away, and did not return for 30 minutes.
Which didn’t bother me at all, because I wanted to start a Kindle book I discovered earlier in the day, My Tiny Vegas by Birdie Jaworski, lifelong resident of Las Vegas, New Mexico.
The first three chapters were about food – Chico, green chiles and piñon – just what I needed while waiting for my meal. Las Vegas is famous for its Harvey House, elegantly set beside the railroad just a few years after it got to Las Vegas in 1879. It’s also famous for gunfights and gunslingers, including Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, along with his famous lady friend. Las Vegas was one of Teddy Roosevelt’s favorite towns. Several movies were filmed in Las Vegas, including The Harvey Girls in 1946, with its famous song “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.”
In the center of town a Carnegie Library dome gleamed in the sun. I asked the librarian for a few books on local history, and she led me to a room with two soft chairs surrounded by books of local history and fiction by Zane Grey, Tony Hillerman and many locals. In a few minutes she brought My Tiny Vegas, and I felt very thankful when I realized I could get an inexpensive Kindle copy.
Later I sat a bit in the Harvey hotel, El Castaneda, and also in the big Plaza Hotel, built in 1882 on the town plaza. After eating my caper-covered chicken, I thought of those cozy afternoon spots as I struggled to walk home in the cold breezy Santa Fe night, past the roller blading park and the Santuario de Guadalupe, with its beautiful blue lighted statue of the Virgin, down Agua Fria back to my very cozy western room.
For me this was a day to leave the high desert and drive up and up and up (7500 feet) through Glorieta Pass into the Sangre de Cristo (“blood of Christ”) mountains. It was a day to drive less and walk more. And most of all, it was a day to do some reading. I nearly forgot my Rule of Life these past few days: Read, Write, Listen, Pray … Every Day. Feels good to be back on track.
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
(Jeremiah 7, Psalm 95, Joel 2, Luke 11)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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