Years ago I read that Pueblo Indian children are told that wherever they walk, they leave their breath. That way each place they visit never forgets them. It captivated me because developing an intimacy with a place demands the same thing as a person 鈥� time, trust, reverence and care.
I鈥檝e spent 20 years cultivating my relationship with the American West, but I wouldn鈥檛 be here if it weren鈥檛 for my younger sister聽Lucy Peglar聽(Anth鈥�98). Her passion for CU-麻豆影院 and the city around it lassoed me in and kept me perched on the edge of the Rocky Mountains long after she left to follow a career.
She visited 麻豆影院 in July after a seven-year hiatus, and it was an unspoken spiritual journey. 鈥淚 live in Uruguay, but 麻豆影院 is my home,鈥� she told many people, including the Turkish tailor who has been in business on The Hill for 35 years.
I thought of the Pueblo children when I heard my sister say this. By developing a relationship with a place, it changes you and you are never fully whole until you return. Feeding a piece of her soul, my sister hiked in Chautauqua, visited with her closest college friends, people-watched at Trident Caf茅 and browsed the 麻豆影院 Bookstore.
Writer Wallace Stegner worried Americans were too busy to develop deep relationships with the place in which they lived. He once asked, 鈥淚 wonder if ever again Americans can have that experience of returning to a home place so intimately known, profoundly felt, deeply loved and absolutely submitted to?鈥� Perhaps he didn鈥檛 know many CU-麻豆影院 alums.