This is a biggie in the Digital Potlatch department, the first installment of BUFFALO LIGHTS: Maryland to New Mexico © 2005, my book about giving up our old life in Maryland at age 55 for a shot at grand adventure in the Southwest… (Note also that chapters from the book will appear here with photos not available in the paperback version.)
The entire 184-page book for sale at Booklocker.com, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, of course, but I’m giving it away, chapter by chapter, in the ongoing Digital Potlatch here at FarrFeed. The print-on-demand publisher, Booklocker.com, currently has a promotion in which they’re doing basically the same thing, but stopping short of giving it all away. Contractual obligations may prevent me from going further than they do, but we shall see. In the meantime, here’s the prologue, and below you’ll find the opening introduction.
Prologue to BUFFALO LIGHTS
We were driving home after dark from Taos to San Cristobal the way we usually did, past the Indian lands to the east. As we neared the place where Kathy liked to spot the pueblo’s dark brown buffalo herd at the foot of the mountain, she stared into the deepening gloom and mused, “They sure would be easier to see if they’d put lights on them.”
Buffalo lights! How utterly improbable yet somehow plausible in the context of this place. Whether she knew it or not, she had created a nugget of myth that would tie us to the great beasts forever, for neither of us would ever pass that way again without remembering.
- John H. Farr, Taos, New Mexico
Introduction
For most of my adult life, the search for the “perfect place” and an occupation to match were the guideposts of my inner life. The question that keeps coming up about our moving to New Mexico is one you’d most expect, namely “why?” To anyone who’s lived here, the question may seem superfluous, although even these would likely question the means and mechanism of our uprooting and so-far uncompleted relocation. The simple truth, obviously, is that I had a vision and we came on faith.
Life is not nearly so concise as that, of course. My wife and I are only just beginning to understand the underlying individual motivations that launched us on this journey. Much of this can be said to be a kind of cosmic joke, a trick that God plays on certain ones to force them into confrontations they would otherwise avoid. This is neither good nor bad but just the way things are. Except in cases of unexpected tragedy, few people have the opportunity to turn themselves so inside out and examine every stick and sinew of their inner lives. Fewer still would wish this on themselves, hence the need for a kind of heavenly deception.
I can say that for me the entire experience has been both arresting and inspiring. I have learned more about myself than I ever would have under more serene conditions, and adversity has forced the growth I sought. I also finally grasp the wisdom of a clever friend who said that “safety is underrated,” although I have yet to put together all the pieces of the puzzle. Security may be an illusion, but it’s certainly worth pursuing until the larger truths I know exist have taken firmer root.
We now must deal with the consequences of all that’s gone before and make new lives. In the chapters that follow, you will have a glimpse of what it’s been like at different stages in the journey. If I’m successful, you’ll also gain some insight into how the deed was done and why. Since the process is ongoing, it may yet turn out that Taos and New Mexico itself are places of transition rather than a home. If that’s the case, the metaphors of travel and transformation will no doubt extend to cover more than where this sack of blood and bones ends its rolling in the dirt.
John H. Farr
[BONUS: Photos after the fold!]
Mouse over the images for explanation!
Related posts:
- BUFFALO LIGHTS: Maryland to New Mexico – Part I, Chapter 4, “Real Estate for Dummies”
- BUFFALO LIGHTS: Maryland to New Mexico – Part II, Chapter 1, “Betrayal”
- BUFFALO LIGHTS: Maryland to New Mexico – Part III, Chapter 4, “New Mexico Slow”
- BUFFALO LIGHTS: Maryland to New Mexico – Part I, Chapter 5, “Dreamwatch”
- BUFFALO LIGHTS: Maryland to New Mexico – Part III, Chapter 2, “Wood Heat”
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