New Mexico Gals Graze

Pictured, l-r, Marcia Smith, Rita Wagner, Renee Whipple (standing) and Deborah Harrington (seated)

Since some of my fan base (ha) live in New Mexico, I decided that while I was there on a faux furlough (working, but not as hard) I should have a Very Smart Gals luncheon. So, in advance I called my BFF in Silver (local dialect for Silver City) and said, “Can you convene a small group of gals for lunch?” I added that they should be interesting and smart. She didn’t let me down. We met at the lovely Tres Rosat Cafe at Cinega Spa. The setting and food were divine, as was the company! Deborah Harrington has been my best friend for nearly 30 years, but it seems we’ve known each other forever. I met her when I advertized for a roommate in Austin. We quickly figured out that we were raised about 100 miles from each other in west Texas and our bond was sealed. Deb retired several years ago from a high-level management position at Nokia, and moved to Silver where she now is an artist and a board member of the local Habitat for Humanity. She and I have traveled together a bunch, laughed till we pee’d ourselves (many times), and shared more than a few tequila shots and bottles of wine (not at the same time, tho)! She is incredibly bright, despicably tall and gorgeous, and she likes me back and thinks I’m funny. Renee Whipple (Whippledoodle to those who know and love her) is a musician and artist and works with the Mimbres Region Arts Council promoting local artists. Renee is originally from San Antonio, where she owned a music store for years. Then, following the music scene, she migrated to Los Angeles and Austin, and now Silver, where she says, “I can’t seem to leave!” Renee regaled us with stories about the music business, and impressed me with her cool head and positive attitude. Each April her family hosts a music festival somewhere around New Braunfels, so now I must go! Rita Wagner is the local vampire – technically, a Phlebotomist at the Gila Regional Medical Center, and as she says, “I’m good at it!” When I asked Rita to tell me about her life in 2-minutes, she looked seriously challenged. “I’ve just about done it all, she said.” Having been raised in the farming business, she spent a good bit of her life as a certified “Master Farmer” in the bread-belt. Umpteen lives later, she ended up in Silver. When I asked her about her “15 minutes of fame,” she said she hadn’t had it yet but it was close. She said that she’s selling her house and heading out to see the world. The next monumental natural (or man-made) disaster, she’s going to hop on a plane, show up with her syringe and tourniquets, and say, “put me to work.” I think we’ve all entertained the idea of showing up to help in a disaster, but Rita’s going to do it and I think that’s cool. Marcia Smith is another Midwest kid that went out into the world to make her mark. Gravitating back and forth between art and gourmet cooking, she’s traveled and worked all over the world, including Switzerland, Mexico where was in the cattle ranching business, the east coast where she worked for Paul Newman and Martha Stewart, and Arizona in 5-star resorts. Marcia and her husband are co-partners in the Seedboat Center for the Arts of the  Seedboat Gallery and Performance Space . Marcia is one wild and crazy gal! When I asked her about her 15-minutes, here's what she told me, which I thought was priceless. “In 1969, when I was 19-years old and working with famous artist Dennis Oppenheim on an 'earthworks' piece. We made this huge maze with 1,500 bales of hay, herded cattle thru it and they did aerial shots of it to see what the hell the cattle would do. That was what was going on in the art world at that time. Time magazine did the shots and there was an article about it in the magazine!” She added that she and Dennis “made some hay” themselves, if you know what I mean! She’s also got a story about Paul Newman showing her his “kernels” (for his popcorn), but I’m way over my 15-minutes, so I’ll just say that there are some very smart, interesting and fun gals in New Mexico!

Room by Emma Donoghue

When Room, which was written by Emma Donoghue, came out in September 2010, I observed its sensational popularity and decided that I definitely would not read it. Then my curiosity got the best of me, and I'm glad.

Here’s the story line: Girl is kidnapped at the age of 19 by an older dude (not sure of his age) and held captive in a sealed-off 11’x11’ room for seven years, during which time he pretty much rapes her every night. He provides very bare essentials - food, kitchen, bathroom, TV, skylight - and little else. The girl conceives and gives birth to two children, one (a girl) dies shortly after birth; the second, Jack, is raised for five years in Room.

There are several things about Room that make it a compelling read. First, just the idea of not seeing a single thing outside a small cell for seven years (except that on a TV screen). Then, imagine trying to raise a child in that situation. Donoghue was incredibly brave to take on such a storyline, and I was equally impressed at how well she handled it. The story is made particularly fascinating, although sometimes irritating, because it is told from the perspective of five-year-old Jack.

Jack’s voice and Donoghue’s writing give us a unique, and often enchanting and shocking perspective on “normal.” To Jack, Room was normal. Hiding in a wardrobe and counting his teeth to pass the time while his mother was raped was normal. Drinking milk from his mom’s breast at the age of five was normal. Jack’s descriptions of his life in Room stirred up so many thoughts and emotions never before considered that I found myself re-thinking life, and what we consider normal. Honestly, I sometimes had to stop reading because it just became too much, too horrifying, too provocative. Click on Read More Below...

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Since author Laura Hillenbrand’s fabulous book Seabiscuit was about a racehorse famous between 1936-38, and her recently released book Unbroken is about an Olympic track star who eventually became a WWII prisoner of war, I just knew there had to be some connection between those two topics. Sure enough, there it was on page 40 of Unbroken: Louis Zamperini’s track coach at the University of Southern California is quoted saying, “The only runner that could beat him (Zamperini) was Seabiscuit.”

Louis Zamperini, born in 1920 to Italian immigrants in Torrance, California, was trouble looking for a place to happen (smoking at age 5 and drinking at 8), so his brother Pete got him involved in the school track team. Louis set a world interscholastic record in the mile and eventually a place on the 1936 U.S. Olympic team, along with Jesse Owens who famously won four gold medals in Berlin, annoying the hell out of Hitler.

Although Zamperini is a track legend (he’s now 94 and has carried the Olympic Torch at five different games), Hillenbrand’s book is primarily focused on Zamperini’s horrific and inspiring tale of survival as a WWII prisoner of war.

I’ll spare you my soapbox speech on old men sending young soldiers off on questionable quest, and just say that I was surprised that I enjoyed reading Unbroken. I didn’t enjoy the story about Zamperini and two other guys spending 47 days fighting off sharks, hunger and thirst while floating in a tiny life raft after their plane crashed into the Pacific. But I did enjoy Hillenbrand’s treatment of the story: the heroism, survival and resilience.

I certainly didn’t enjoy the seemingly endless torture of prisoners of war in Japanese captivity – extreme hunger and thirst, men loosing half their body weight, maggot covered food, daily beatings, years of almost unbelievable deprivation. But Hillenbrand’s writing kept me turning the page. I have to admit that the entire time I was reading those parts I felt squeamishly like a “rubbernecker.” Just when you think Zamperini’s situation can’t get any worse, it does. Which at some point just makes you want to say, “Oh, come on!” Click on Read More Below...