Postcard from Taos

view of Rio Grande Gorge from the trail to
Manby Hot Springs (Arroyo Hondo, NM)

three weeks into my Taos Ski Valley "residency", and i have disappointingly little to show for it. i've barely touched the many pens, blank paper, art supplies, and music scores that i brought. so far, this is all i've learned:

1. i don't like living in a place that has only one way in/out; i feel surprisingly trapped. though TSV is undeniably beautiful in the way that ski resorts are in the summer, it's a curvy 30-minute ride down the one road into town, and if anything happens on that road to block it, you're stuck on one side or the other until the block is cleared. TSV itself (in the summer) features one bar; one tiny cafe; one tinier "grocery" store named 'Bumps' (quotes around the word "grocery" because it's basically a liquor store with junk food and a couple lonely apples rolling around in a basket); one coffee stand; and a couple ski shops (why are they even open now???). which means that any time i get a break longer than 3 hours, i'm flying down that one road off the mountain like a bat out of hell. 

2. nature is not inherently enlightening. as someone who was raised among shopping malls and fast food chains (and who now prefers living amid the pavement, people, and commotion of cities), i've always thought there was something mystically superior about people who lived "in nature". i suspected that their decision to live in remote areas indicated a more highly developed sense of being, in the same way that i suspect that people who only read The Economist and listen to NPR podcasts must be superior to me, with my love of British fashion mags and commercial pop/R+B music (even though i know it kills my brain cells). i now realize this is complete bullshit. people who live in TSV all year round are as ridiculous as any fool off of any city street. 

3. because nature is not inherently enlightening, i have not become a more evolved human after living here for a few weeks. i have not solved any of my own problems, much less society's. i haven't had any revelations. i am not more patient and kind to others. i am as judgmental as i was before i arrived (see my comment on ppl who live in TSV). at first, i was disappointed with my lack of self-improvement. but now i'm content to admire the trees (which i swear are closing in on us, inch by inch); enjoy the thunderstorms; and thank the universe for DirectTV.