Saturday, November 29, 2008

Dia de Gracias


Even though this little mountain pueblo is well connected to the rest of the world with a fine wireless signal now available in many of the coffee houses and hotels, the round mountains that frame the sky and surround the village seem to cradle us from the worst of the world.

Yesterday, while much of the world was taken in by the events in India, we enjoyed a private talk with the so called legitimate president of Mexico. He spoke in the park in front of my house to a crowd of seventy or so. Lopez Obrador spoke to us in clear words and in concise phrases.

He spoke of the domination of Mexican politics by a ruling elite that controlled the TV networks. He addressed questions of food and education. And now, two years after he lost the presidency to Felipe Calderon, he is visiting every pueblo and town in Mexico to bring about his version of change.

As he jumped into his white Suburban that said "El Legitimo Gobierno de Mexico" on the side, he waved and said "adios, adios" to the warm and excited eclectic group who had gathered to hear him.

On Thanksgiving, about 12 adults, 2 teenagers and 5 kiddos spent much of the day in the mountains above the town, well above 10,000 feet. The sky was clear and as blue as clear water over white sand. We had a picnic under the large Alamogordo trees on the soft green grass and great stone blocks that had fallen from the 250 year old stone ruins of this pueblo fantasma.

We then went to the "Montana Sagrada for Gueros" where we straighted the stone circles and blessed the site with wine and awe.

In the evening, we gave our thanks for this Dia de Gracias in a beautiful formal setting in the old restored Tesoro. The turkey and the dressing was prepared by the Italian who owns the corner restaurant, and the Loma (roast beef) was cooked by a traveling Swiss chef.

It all reminds me of this passage from the Tao:

What is rooted is easy to nourish
What is recent is easy to correct.
What is brittle is easy to break.
What is small is easy to scatter.

Prevent trouble before it arises.
Put things in order before they exist.
The giant pine tree
grows from a tiny sprout.
The journey of a thousand miles
starts from benearth your feet.

Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion,
you ruin what was almost ripe.

Therefore the Master takes action
by letting things take their course
He remains as calm
at the end as at the beginning.
He has nothing,
thus has nothing to lose.
What he desires is non-desire;
what he learns is to unlearn.
He simply reminds people
of who they have always been.
He cares about nothing but the Tao.
Thus he can care for all things.*



*64 Tao te Ching
by Stephen Mitchell

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Love and clarity are always welcome
dan

11:17 AM  

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