In This Together

It's when we start working together that the real healing takes place... 

it's when we start spilling our sweat, and not our blood.     
David Hume 

The conclusions I reached in Youth Center Demolished! Notes From a Community Planning Meeting went against my own best understandings of place making. Part ideology, part theory, part social, political, economic and other research, and part faith, I have always held to the idea of inclusion and collaborative place making (definition below). The 'more the merrier,' the 'we all bring something to the table,' the 'best leaders teach others to lead' sort of thing. You know the type. But here was this meeting, this meeting of a few brave and caring souls. And then there was my own involvement and reflection. And then there were my conclusions. 

My conclusions are not entirely clear as I re-read the post. I obviously felt that a single individual created a vision of place had the potential to showcase the best of what the town and region has to offer. This is what I thought, and I was thinking really hard. The potential for education and reflection, even in a little park like this is immeasurable I though, thinking even harder. Great dams and vast expanses of teeming deserts, river riparian areas, agricultural histories and settlements that stretch back centuries, a spaceport and ghost towns. I was really really thinking. The education panels could be gorgeous, innovative and remarkable designs. Lots of old photos, lots of place narratives, lots of histories. Then there were the gardens celebrating local food ways, and the local flora, and the gentle gurgle of healing water...

Now I am not so sure my fevered response was much a whole lot different than my beer gardens! pony rides! public place design! response that swept me up in the initial design frenzy. In a single heated sweep I set aside collaboration and community in favor of what I saw as visionary aesthetic leadership, measured as it was and aided by an almost magical illustrator. of course the meeting itself was organized by a collaborative effort. And there might have been just a dozen contributors, but they were fine contributors. Enthusiastic like myself. I have not lessened in my regard for this beautiful vision. Not in the least. It is still one of the most evocative place renderings I have seen lately, and I look at a lot of them. It is what I study. It is my passion these days. 

What I did do was sweep aside my long held place making ideas and ideals and in the process also made myself a powerful judge and jury of one. Banish the thought. How very important I must be! is what I am thinking now, thinking back (I do promise to stop with the thinking soon). Is it the fact that I am blogging about this experience? What a strange verb. Me and 6.7 million other people, according NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey company (http://blog.nielsen.com). Another 12 million write blogs using their social networks. This company tracked over 181 million blogs around the world, up from 36 million only five years earlier in 2006. I got lost in this universe the other day and was astounded by the scope and the writing.  

My goal in creating this blog was to provide a platform where my some of my place ethnographic research, including field work, interviews, observations and history research in T or C could be shared. I try to teach my students that all 'researchers' bring themselves into their observations. We think about the world certain ways and in turn tell our stories from this place. But I also constantly emphasize that scholars should strive to be good observers, seeking to observe without judgement, to be diligent in their data collection and open to the emergent and persistent patters they see in their data. How's that working out for me? Over 600 people have looked at this small online field book/journal. I need to observe more, report more, write more history, and think less I think. Shut up and listen a little. 

This is what I did with Merry Jo Fahl the other day, and it was some good ass-kicking learning. I feel this way every time I hang out with Sherry Lane Fletcher, but that's a post for another day. Here is a picture of Sierra County's Campo Espinoso though, which will be the focus of a post soon. I do love the blogging universe, if only to keep a record of what I promise to do.  

The Campo Espinoso wildlife refuge. http://www.campoespinoso.org/

The idea that there are powerful place makers among us whose vision affects the physical and imagined shapes of our places more than others is a big one in the literature on place making, along with the idea that place malign must be a collaborative effort to affect real and lasting change in a community. Place making includes all of the things that a community does to create a sense of place. A sense of place, according to a pretty straightforward definition by the The National Trust for Historic Preservation, are those things that add up to a feeling that a community is a special place, distinct from anywhere else.

The question of how we collaborate to create places, our shared place making practices, is a big question that drives my dissertation research. This  it is one of the things I am most interested in learning both in a scholarly way and professionally. There is only so much you can read before you have to take to the road and look around to see how ideas play out on the ground. In theory at least, if you plan on working out in the world. There is a lot of theory on the subject of place and place making that I am familiar with, another 'coming soon!,' post. On the ground a few weekends ago I fundamentally questioned some of my basic 'it takes a village' assumptions, but then I was reminded that one page does not make a book, and I am about a  paragraph into the ethnographic story of Truth or Consequences. I have a lot of ground to cover.

I talked to Merry Jo Fahl, district manager of the Sierra Soil and Water Conservation District, about the still-under-construction but open to the public Healing Waters Trail. (From which the "Healing Waters Plaza' gleefully took its name.) I am, in addition to all of the other things I am attempting to do these days, trying to be useful to the community I am researching. ,  Being useful, collaborative and so on are part of a new model of research that universities are, in theory, encouraging. In theory means that it sounds great in vision statements. 

Collaboration between researchers, or the University we represent, and the communities where we do our research if it is not in a lab or library, is not a new idea by any means. But it is one that is re-emerging with considerable force. In practice what it often means is there is a lot of money for corporate collaboration and research, where dollars come into the university, not so much for history and humanity types who go out into communities. But it sounds great, and I personally believe it, so I offered to write a brief institutional and cultural history of the Healing Waters Trail for promotion, education and the like. 

As I sat down to talk with Merry Jo, and she recounted the incredible journey of collaboration and hard work and years that great place making projects demand, I was reminded that my best ideas about places are not my own, but are learned. They are hard lessons that people have learned over years, and I am learning mine. The good one are always the hard one. 

In an interview with Sid Bryan of Pelican fame, a place maker of considerable might, I asked what he thought made for sustainable and great place making practices. And he said it started with people who were committed to sticking around. In another interview, I asked a local resident why she stayed, and she replied that you either decide to pack it up, or you dig in a little harder, and accept that we are all in this together. I will write soon about Healing Water Trail, which I plan to hike with my girl the week after next. Here is a note from the T or C City website that asks readers to envision places that we can create working together, digging in our heals, and spilling sweat. Or in my case, words. But sharing visions can create realities, or so this place narrative goes...

Envision a trail that...

...celebrates the ancient healing traditions of the hot mineral springs, connects us to native and migratory birds and wildlife along the Rio Grande, and brings us to a park for quiet reflection of those who have served our country.

...weaves together a multitude of historic, cultural, artistic and natural elements into a unique tapestry.

...offers numerous amenities for residents and visitors alike, including:

• Enhanced quality of life.
• Relaxation for body, mind and spirit in the hot mineral waters of restored bathhouses.
• Enjoyment of public art of the WPA era and present time.
• A healthy place to bike, walk, jog and play.
• Access to the river for fishing, boating and bird-watching.
• A step back to the times of the pit dwellers, the Apaches, the dam builders, and the natural healers who shaped this place.
• A stroll past buildings and homes listed on the National Historic Register.
• A replica of the Vietnam Healing Wall for quiet meditation.

This vision could become a reality...

In January 2008, a group of local citizens representing broad interests in Truth or Consequences began to make this vision of a Healing Waters Trail a reality.

The overarching goal of their efforts is to produce a "Healing Waters Trail Plan," which will be used to acquire funding and to implement the trail. This plan will answer questions concerning a variety of issues, including what route the trail will follow, what the trail will look like, how the historic and natural resources along the trail will be preserved and highlighted, how the trail will be maintained and protected, and how to address trail safety.

The project has received support from the City of Truth or Consequences, the New Mexico Soil and Water Conservation District, and the National Park Service, and it continues to gain momentum as more local residents offer their ideas and suggestions.