Just Thinking: Skin of Stone
" ... For I have grown a skin of sand and stone, of plants with spines and thorns, of leaflets small but fragrant, of miniscule pools of water that sparkle like gems in the sun ." I was reading a story in a recent issue of the Hight Country News when I came across that quote. The story unfolded as a series of experiences shared between the story's author, Ruben Martinez and naturalist Gary Paul Nabhan (whose book The Desert Smells Like Rain I have referenced on several occasions here at this blog). The quote was by neither of the two men, but rather by a third who had joined the conversation, an Comcáac (Seri) man by the name of Alberto Mellado Moreno. The Comcáac are indigenous to the northern coast of Sonora state, Mexico, and Mr. Moreno was relating the story of the peoples' creation. The quote speaks of a familiarity... no, wait, it is more than that, much more. It speaks of an intimacy with place that I do not believe people / societies today, with few exceptio...
