I’ve been on the road for about two days, and am writing this from Roswell. Here are some first rough notes, with a lot of assumptions, and so far, more questions than answers.
In New Mexico, like the Nullabor in Australia (where Rhiannon is from), there is a certain level of hardscrabble existence. To get a better idea of what I mean by this, join my Facebook page, “The Care and Feeding of Happiness”, where you will see some photographs I’ve taken over the last couple of days of this wonderful place – NM calls itself “The Land of Enchantment”, and you’ll see why. The cattle ranches are huge here. It’s grazing land – you can’t really grow much out here. (What are those little scrubby bushes called?) Lots of big hawks (or whatever they’re called) floating over the ranches on the heat rising from the desert. Big flat spaces. Big fluffy white clouds. Foothills. Mesas. You can see for miles and miles.
Today I visited a couple of almost-ghost towns. In one, maybe only fifty people still live there. The rest of the place is abandoned. This town used to have a few stores, and what appears to be a thriving existence, but it’s all but gone now. Only the shells of the buildings remain. This begs the question: why live there? There is a certain solitude, to be sure, but perhaps there’s something else I’m missing. Discuss: add your comments at the end of this post…
New Mexico is a complex mix of Native people, Hispanics, and Caucasian. Not necessarily in that order. Emma is a mix of the latter two (which explains her last name, Miller, even though she looks Hispanic.) While I don’t have all the details on her upbringing yet, here are some thoughts about why she is so bitter:
Emma, somehow, seems to be of above average intelligence, and is at odds with most of the people around her. Her boyfriend, Dave, is a ranch hand here. A very nice, really sweet individual, but also very traditional. Imagine a young man who lives and breathes the perfect world of country and western music lyrics. Emma finds all of this quite dull. You can imagine why she’s dissatisfied with him – and their relationship. Despite the fact that she’s smart, the best job she could get was working in The Cactus Bar and Grill after she completed high school. She has unwittingly corralled herself into this dead end existence, as if she were unaware that she could do anything else, or go anywhere else. (As you know from reading the excerpts, all that is about to change…)
More later…
