The Spirit-Soul of a Human Family

The woman in the RV park was swinging her arms as she walked. You can't get much of a walk in an RV park, so I considered telling her about Farmington's (NM) nice linear city park, along the Animas River. That would certainly make for a longer and more interesting walk for her.

But I kept my mouth shut. I might like recreational trails in a city -- in fact, they are my favorite thing -- but most RVers are out to "consume" the standard, bar-coded brand names of the tourism industry. In this area, Indian ruins are the main brand names, which is surprising considering how visually unexciting most old pueblo ruins are. It seems advantageous to simply read about them, for free, on the internet.

My dog and I went off to do our usual thing of walking along the Animas River. On the way back, we ran into two interesting families. The first was a goose family. They paddled along on the other side of the river, which tortures my dog, Coffee Girl, who is no fan of water.

The second family was of the homo sapiens species. But they were unusual specimens: lively and unfearful. It is so nice to have a dog who loves children! She would sprint up to them,  push her tush into the ground, smile, and wag her tail. The parents seemed to enjoy these performances as much as the kids.

One of the girls was small enough to be in a stroller. When my dog sprinted toward her, I tensed up, expecting the little girl to start crying and the parents to give me a dirty look. But instead, the little girl happily submitted to a face wash from my dog, as the mother looked on, approvingly!

Meanwhile the little boy took a flop into the Animas River. He looked like such a happy little animal, just lying there, wallowing and frolicking, despite the coldness of the water. Again, lively and fearless.

If you use a recreational trail in a city, you might have interesting experiences with fellow trail users. Most encounters are pretty routine, and most greetings -- if there are any -- are pretty perfunctory. But the encounter with this family was my all-time favorite. Why shouldn't my favorite wildlife encounter be with homo sapiens? 

I am unmoved and uninspired by the bogus spirituality of the Native Americans, as romanticized by modern PC city-slickers and New Age faddists. Let others have a "spiritual" experience at one of the tourist traps run by the park service, if it works for them. This family was my version of a "spiritual" experience. How fitting that this happened along a river that means 'spirit' or 'soul' in Spanish.

I had no idea it was so easy and fun to build screens, using the kits from the home building centers. I love solar screens. Perhaps I should turn the whole back end of the trailer (at the ramp) to solar screens!