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Thursday, August 1, 2013

It's a big country and que Bonita es mi gente

Traveling makes you see life from another point of view, sometimes a weary one from sitting too long in a speeding vehicle of some kind, getting from home to someplace else, sometimes a surprised point of view as in a strange supermarket when a stranger sees you and recognizes you. 

I was shopping for tomatillos in the Lake Tahoe Safeway with my brother in law when a woman in her early forties interrupted our careful tomatillo picking to inquire how we would use them, explaining she never sees anyone in the store buying tomatillos. 

We started chatting about tomatillo ideas and she asked me if I am Hispanic, because of my accent. She explained she lived now in Seattle but had grown up in Deming, New Mexico. We talked about our mutual adoration of Hatch's chiles and I noticed her kind eyes and sunny complexion.

A brief encounter, but a memorable one because even in a strange places we find each other, the folks who have a history in common, or a nationality, often less than heritage, but simply a reverence in common the things that mark our places on the planet, our foods or nature's gifts, a majestic mountain range and its trees and streams.






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