Living in Reverence, Care, and Community – Learning from New Mexico’s Ditches
TEO Ka-tet* Issue #35
For the past eight years, we have had the pleasure of working with a university in northern New Mexico in the small “city” of Las Vegas – the original Las Vegas as its residents say. If you are a fan of “No Country for Old Men” or “Longmire,” you have glimpsed the town that barely needed staging to appear like one of those on the 1800’s western frontier. We often take a few days after the work to explore other parts of New Mexico. One place that Linda always returns to is the Bosque Trail that runs from just north of Albuquerque for about 16 miles alongside the Rio Grande.
While those of us in the Richmond, Virginia area had an unanticipated heightened appreciation for water this past January after dealing with possibly contaminated water, New Mexicans and others who live in the southwest maintain a reverence for water and are in relationship with it in a way that often only scarcity provides. Adventuring the Bosque Trail over time opened a lesser-known element of the Rio Grande and other rivers that illustrates this respect for the water and is purely magical – the acequias.
The word “acequia” refers to the irrigation channels (ditches) that distribute water from the Rio Grande and other rivers as well. The landowners (parciantes) are member-shareholders of the governing acequia commission. Each parciante contributes to the care and equitable distribution of the water according to the size of their land and their needs. It is a communitarian approach to caring for and managing a complex network of acequias so that the precious water flows to the areas it feeds during both the heavy rain season as well as through droughts. In the end, 93% of the water returns to the Rio Grande, making this system unusually efficient. (Typical dammed waters lose much of their water to condensation). Linda became fascinated with this process and followed on an adjacent path watching as the acequias twist and turn and cross over dams, drains, and distribution equipment, and marveling at how the system worked as it fed the lands. It was by reading the book, Mayordomo, by Stanley Crawford though that explained even more of the mystic, tradition, and community of this network.
In very simple terms, the Mayordomo, elected by the Commission, has the job of keeping the acequias free and clear of debris and managing the flow of water among the network of ditches so that everyone has enough. In some cases that may mean redirecting water during heavy rains to prevent flooding fields. At other times, it may require rationing water during droughts. It always required conscientious work by the Mayordomo and a crew to keep the acequias clear and flowing and distributed fairly and based on the needs of the whole community.
So why does this come up in our TEO Ka-tet? Because, perhaps especially now, we need to learn from this sense of reverence for what is vital to life, to the stewardship of its care, and to the fair and equitable distribution of essential commodities to all. There are so many non-profit organizations and volunteer groups out there doing this work daily and making such a difference in their focused areas. We should be so grateful and supportive to them. The system of acequias is a real and valuable analogy.
But we also need to think of ourselves as part of one community, not community sub-sets where one must be associated by a factor to belong, but one, where we are all linked and valued by the fact that we all need water, shelter, food, and belonging. This “one community” viewpoint seems to be fading with increased polarization based upon specific issues, needs, and causes.
There was a phrase used somewhere to the effect of “only war unifies the people” – a sad but perhaps true saying. Can we be unified without a war? Do we, as people, always need to compete to get what we need? What happens then to those not in our group? Can we balance both the need to advocate for specific causes, needs, and rights and still focus on the wider community of humanity? Let’s give it a try.
Activity:
1. Take a piece of paper and draw a circle in the middle titled “you.”
2. Now draw other circles around “you” with the names of certain groups or organizations that you are a part of, for example, work, gym, church, volunteering, etc.
3. Now draw a bigger circle around all of the circles and think of what they all provide to you and the common elements. For example, work provides you with a purpose and means. The gym provides you with better health, and so forth.
4. Now step back and reflect upon your picture. Do you see one community encompassing your smaller communities? What links them altogether?
What do you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts about broadening perspectives without losing smaller identities. We all live together on this earth – let’s give it a chance.
And, if you are interested in the acequias, go to the PBS website and look up “Acequias: The Legacy Lives On.” The documentary is just under an hour and well worth the time.
Thank you for continuing to read the TEO Ka-tet and being in our circle.
Stay well, stay curious,
Linda and Jim
* Ka-tet - A group of people bound together by ka (destiny) for a sense of purpose. Credit: Stephen King from his novel, The Gunslinger.
TEO Ka-tet is the property of James Burke and Linda Pierce operating as TEOconsulting, LLC
https://teoconsulting.org/
I've read this three times now and the two things that keep coming back are that one, my circles are often incongruous and two, we are now at a point where we need to make some new circles. So, let me explain, as a gay Catholic, two of my circles often looked at each other with suspicion and sometimes distaste. I have often been asked by both why I associate or how I could be part of the other. I'd like to believe that by staying true to both, I taught each a little about the other. Work has always been the same. I've never stayed in my division or my section, I've always believed that the most important circle was the entire Agency working together. Sometimes our little circles just get in the way.
The second part is just part of life. We moved. When you move your circles often don't move with you. We have been searching for a new Catholic church that was as welcoming as the one we left. THAT IS A TALL ORDER and probably not realistic. In addition, all of our friends are no longer close by, so we are creating new circles, new neighbors, new hangouts, new schedules, new ways of staying connected to our existing circles. I think this part is going to take some time before the circles all settle into place....right now its a bit like a large number of spinning plates on sticks...where will they all settle in and which ones will break in the process??
I'd like to believe that we have the ability to remember who we are without having to create or confront a common enemy, but that isn't really the history of America is it? We seem to always be at our best when we have someone "outside" that we all agree is "bad." When that has to be artificially created by someone (immigrants, Jews, LGBT, "those people", etc.) it creates an environment where we turn on ourselves more than face the imitation enemy. As a country, as a people, we are a bunch of spinning plates...do we spin together or do we come crashing down?
I do believe that we all have a part to play in bringing all the plates together. While I think there is a place for peaceful protest and pointing out the hypocrisy and dishonesty, we need to remember that we are all in this together and learn to listen to each other. There is a place for the silence and understanding. Don't confuse this with agreement, but if all we do is shout at each other, there is no space to create a circle. That's part of the challenge now, finding ways to create circles of understanding.
So we have to stand in the friendly circles we have, find support in those circles. Gather the hugs and gather our strength. The work ahead requires us to look outside our circles, and it requires a lot of energy to be patient and listen without judgement and without joining the yelling, no matter how badly we want to yell back.