Carl
The Earth
“Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon
the remembered earth, I believe.
He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it.
He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it.
He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind.
He ought to recollect the glare of noon and all the colors of the dawn and dusk.
For we are held by more than the force of gravity to the earth. It is the entity from which we are sprung, and that into which we are dissolved in time.
The blood of the whole human race, is invested in it. We are moored there, rooted as surely, as deeply as are the ancient redwoods and bristlecones.”
Natachee Scott Momaday
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Southwest Oklahoma
I like the prairie of southwest Oklahoma: the smells, the sounds, the sights, and the solitude.
I like listening to the wind; it’s not the sound made as wind passes through branches, but the sound made as it passes over prairie. I wonder where it comes from and how far it has traveled. I like to listen hard, to hear the sounds from distant places it carries as it flies.
I like the openness of the prairie; I like the view unblocked by trees or mountains. My eyes relax, at rest. I scan the horizon for miles in all directions. I can see, almost, to where the wind begins.
Carl
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I was born on the prairie of the Southwest. I’ve spent all my life here and when I travel to other states with other geographies, I’m glad to return home to the open spaces, to short trees, and tall grasses. I earned a high school diploma from a small school in a small town where people with big hearts and open minds lived. There was racial discrimination, to be sure, but not between friends; and I had lots of friends: Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, and Whites, too. There was also gender discrimination, but I ran, played, competed with, kissed, loved, and cherished many friendships where gender didn’t matter; and in all I won, and lost. Back then parents were parents, teachers were teachers, adults were adults, and children were children. It’s not that way, anymore. That’s a shame. I’m glad I grew up during that era, went to school in a small town, fell in love with a small town girl and had our first date on July 20, 1969, the day Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon. It was Sunday, a new movie was showing at the drive-in theater, six miles north of town. I don’t remember what movie was showing, but the drive-in showed three movies a week: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday — Wednesday — Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Most weeks I was there three times and admission was only 70¢, and less than that if you hid in the trunk or got out early and slipped in the back.
