"Get Over
It"
by
Dick Prosapio © 2005
That's what I found in my mailbox last week. The sender was
referring to the piece on my colonoscopy
and, if I had decided to respond I would have said, "I agree."
I mean, I know there are a lot worse things to endure than angst
over what is, almost always, a routine physical exam. But I write
about my life and what I experience with the idea that there is
someone out there who might be going through the same wrestling
match with fear, or teenagers, or marriage, or the deaths of a
mother or father, etc.,.....what should I write about?
Iraq?
Indonesia?
The Middle East?
GW?
I suppose if I would be willing to leave my "ivory tower" and
become an investigative reporter on everything that is really worth
writing about I'd have some juicy stuff to say. But, I'm not
planning on any ventures of this sort. I find that my life is just
about as big as I need it to be on a daily basis, just a regular
life with regular dilemmas. Some days or weeks are "better" than
others. These are usually the times that are empty of drama.
I confess, I prefer these "intermissions" to any level of chaos
that might make more interesting reading. I always sign off my
emails with; "Love from us in Oz!" This is not because
I believe that we, this little family, live in a cloud of imagined
perfection. It is, rather, because, just as the Oz of fiction, we
live in a place of paradox, a place that promises great
beauty and mystery, and delivers a good deal of ugliness and
pragmatic reality.
New Mexico has a lot going for it to be sure. All the stuff our
tourist bureau promotes, the great outdoors, the Pueblos, the
weather, the mix of geology from the sandy deserts of the south to
the high alpine meadows and snow capped peaks of the north. Then
there are the ghost towns, the "ol' West" history, the deer,
buffalo, antelope, coyotes, wolves, eagles, ravens, art, Santa Fe,
and all the other attractions our horns toot about.
All the good stuff.
And then there's the rest; the "lists". The "lists" are the
things we hear about on a regular basis here in The Land of
Enchantment. Those of us who live here laugh about the state
motto. But like any paradox, it is partly true. The part that adds
whimsy is that at least once a week the Ten o'clock News has
one or two little stories about the latest "List" our state has
made. These always follow the same pattern, if it is a list of bad
stuff we are near the top. If it is good stuff, we're near the
bottom. If it's about drunken driving fatalities, we will make the
top of that list over and over again. If it's about our ranking in
education, we will usually be better than Arkansas or Alabama, but
that's it.
I guess I could write about this. But there are those better
suited to do that job than I.
No, I don't do the Big Concept stuff. I'm just a chronic
complainer who has the time to write about what it's like to live in
a paradox cum Paradise.....and it's not all that bad really. We
fight with mining interests who would like to dig more pits in the
mountains in pursuit of more profits. We fight with those who would
like to turn all our wildernesses into a theme park by killing off
all the predators; they like to diminish their importance by calling
them "varmints".
We fight to keep the Dream, the part that really IS the "Enchantment",
alive.
Just like you.
And now and then, another reality will intrude, that physical
"stuff" that helps put daily "dramas" into perspective. So, I tell
those tales too. Will I "Get over it!"? Probably not. After all,
even the Wiz has indigestion now and then and will
have to talk about it.
