Iowa--where the tall corn--and more grows

I get misty when I think of Iowa.
This was my rant today on Facebook, in the wake of the presidential caucuses:
  "I am really getting tired of all the high techy, big city snobmedia and pundits looking down on their noses and making fun of the Iowa caucuses. Excuse me--they don't fit in your pigeonhole so you can stereotype the people as hicks and the system as archaic? Hey, they use pencil and paper, they get together civilly, vote in a true democracy where every vote counts, and dare to do it differently than any place else in America. You gotta problem with that? If American politicians and the system make a bigger deal of it than perhaps it should be, it's your fault. Iowans are glad you're gone. And besides, you ougtta have to come up here and suffer the winters if you're gonna be so uppity. They can handle it, if you can't."
Pardon me, but it's personal.
Three of my four children were born in that state, and my fourth child, and his family now live in Dubuque, on the northeast side, and "caucused" yesterday. Proud I am.

"Iowa, where the tall corn grows."

My wonderful wife Neysa and I  moved from Oklahoma to Hawarden, in Northwest Iowa on the South Dakota border by the Big Sioux River to teach high school English many years ago, following friends, "establishing" a church, renting a Seventh Day Adventist church, driving to Sioux City and Sioux Falls every once in a while.

I never saw so much green, so much great rolling rich dark glacial farmland, America's Mesopotamia, nestled between two great rivers...full of life, corn, soybeans,  tempered by brutal winters, but with great solid people who valued education and hard work. In northwest Iowa our first son was born, Vance Conrad. Story below.

From there we went to Iowa City to get a graduate degree in journalism, and then to southwest Iowa to be an editor of a semi-weekly paper, the Herald-Journal, in Clarinda, Iowa, where our second son, Travis Austin, and our daughter, Dallas Page, was born.

Then we moved back to Oklahoma to be near family, worked at the Duncan Banner and bought into the Waurika News-Democrat, where our fourth child, Derrick Rogers was born.

Since then there has been happiness and sadness, successes and failures, but Iowa remains, deeply a part of all of us. I can go on and on about its influences in our lives. I understand why it is the original "American Heartland."

Misty-- from an earlier post:

"We headed east over the rolling hills of northwest Iowa  years ago.

"The rising sun turned the mist from the corn golden, as we sped up and down the hills in a light green Volkswagen to the hospital 30 miles away in LeMars. My wife's contractions had started before daybreak, and we left the house shortly after 5 a.m.
"'Come in here, you're responsible for this,' said the red headed doctor O'Toole, handing me a gown and mask, and about noon, a baby boy was born.
"Those memories are still real, and I know his mother remembers even more, because mothers remember more than fathers do, including  more about the births of our other three children. 

Iowan

"Years have passed and there have been lots of ups and downs since then for all of us. But we're blessed with our children and grandchildren. That boy is now M/Sgt. Vance C. Clark, USAF... ."

Our  other Iowans--

A chilly night 

Third time is a charm

My Iowans, Derrick and Naomi, ready to caucus!

 

 

No word for "artist," and a bear fetish

"The Zunis have no word for 'artist,'" the Santa Fe shopkeeper told me. "They just do."
On a whim, I'd stopped in the Keshi shop on Don Gaspar Street a week ago. The sign read "The Zuni Connection." Although I'd walked past it many times, for some reason I went in the door opened to the cool afternoon sunshine, and discovered another face and more stories about New Mexico.

The store, in business since 1981, is named for the word Zunis use as a traditional greeting and is pronounced Kay-she. Inside I found hundreds of the carved fetishes on shelves and cases, open for picking up and examining the stone carvings of different animals, all of which have meanings to the Zunis. That pueblo is located in far western New Mexico, and distinct from most of the other pueblos up and down the Rio Grand valley. Here's a link with videos of the Zunis.
"The Zunis believe the fetish chooses you," she said, and I spent 30 minutes going from case to case. The jewelry cases were the only ones locked, for good reason,  and sooner or later I found myself looking at many bear fetishes. As a lover of bears, especially grizz, I've often considered it my totem.
I found several, left, and returned in 30 minutes to buy a small bear fetish, carved out of black Jet and with turquoise eyes and heart inlaid. 

Georgia Quandelacy

It's not signed, because most Zunis consider that egotistical and inappropriate. But the sticker had the name of the artist on it--Georgia Quandelacy, a third generation carver.
When you buy a fetish, the store gives you a small packet of blue corn meal, with instructions. Corn is also sacred to the Zunis and other Indians, and it is never sold, but given, as the mother, the connection between earth and all life. Giving the corn is a reminder to give back and be thankful.
You take a bit of the corn meal and sprinkle a bit on the back of the fetish in a meditative ritual to honor the spirit in the fetish. When you offer corn to your fetish, in return you will be blessed.
Zunis carry their fetishes when they are hunting and elsewhere, not worshiping the image, but the spirit of the animal within. Each of the different animals have specific meanings and symbolism to the Zuni people.
Bear, according to the Zuni, is the principal animal for the Pueblo People and they are the most prevalent fetishes. Bear fetishes are used for healing, protection, strength, journeying, mothering, hunting and gathering. Bear's hibernation reminds us of  the value of going within. 
Turquoise tends to bring good fortune, strength and helps overcome illness. Native 
Americans have prized turquoise since the time of the Aztecs, who mined it in New
 Mexico. 
Bear is the most human of animals, and symbolizes for me and others, the
 connection of all life and the interconnectedness of all spirituality. These people
 don't make the division between work and every day life and spirituality and
 religion like most Westerners do. No wonder there is no word for "artist." That
 signifies a separation from regular life.
To me, their beliefs and civilization is stronger than ours because of that. They were
 here before us, and will be here after us.
I'm glad this bear fetish chose me, and blessed me by sparking new stories and 
thoughts. He resides next to my computer and painting table.
Some of the wording in this article comes from the Zuni. I reprint it as fact. If there are
errors, they come from my ignorance and I apologize. No disrespect intended.