I have just returned from a trip to Santa Fe, NM where I helped an old friend coordinate an art show. Up until this visit, the extent of my knowledge of the city was pretty much limited to the song about the city from the musical "RENT".
What a therapeutic place I found it to be. Santa Fe is a place where:
The long stretches of red clay desert allow you to see for miles.
The air is so clean and the landscape is so unobstructed, you can actually see where the mountains reach up and touch the sky.
The unimposing natural colored architecture respects the earth and and blends so seamlessly into the landscaping, in some cases you hardly notice it is there.
Art is not a luxury, it is considered a necessity.
Although the city is a mecca for artists and intellectuals from all over the world, the influence of its original inhabitants, the American Indians, is ever present. No matter what the accent of the person to whom you are speaking, they all seem to have the same aura.
There is an aspect of this place, a sort of peace or reverence, that I haven't seen anywhere else in my travels. This city, tucked into the foothills of the Rockies with an average of 325 days of sunshine each year, seems to reach out and embrace you with what feels like, to a novice like me, the arms of Mother Nature.
Because the Native Americans inhabited this area long before the Spanish arrived in the 1500s, I believe the traditions of respect for the earth and what it provides are deeply embedded in everyone there, regardless of individual origins. I also believe the other contributing factor to the magnetism of this place is the beauty and pageantry of the centuries-old Catholic Churches. The two cultures seem to mesh together creating a soulful and peaceful existence.
I understand now what a friend from Kansas City meant when he told me he needs to go to Santa Fe at least once a year for a "cleansing".
