Giovanni
apparently was born to Italian nobles, studied for the priesthood,
did not take vows, and spent many years walking through Europe and
the Americas. He arrived in New Mexico at 62, after walking with the
wagon train of Eugenio Romero (related to J. Paul Taylor, soon to be
100) and lived on a hill (now called Hermit’s Peak) northwest of
Las Vegas.
He
came to Mesilla to consult lawyer Albert Fountain, then took up
residence in La Cueva, up near Dripping Springs. The Barela family
(forebears of Mesilla’s current mayor) warned him it was dangerous.
He promised to light a fire each Friday evening to let them know he
was all right. On Friday, 17 April, 1869, there was no fire.
Antonio Garcia, who used to transport sick people to La Cueva so
Giovanni could heal them with local herbs, led a group to
investigate, and found Giovanni dead, with a knife in his back. His
murder, like Fountain’s, went unsolved.
My
ears luxuriated in the silence of the hermit’s cave, a healing
silence in which, for the first few minutes, the din we take for
granted in our daily lives reverberated in my head, expanding to fill
the silent cave, then dissipating. As the silence took possession of
me, I contemplated Giovanni and wished that each year we would
celebrate 17 April.
“As
a day of silence? A day of meditation?” my wife asked. Sure. A
day of quiet. A day for reflecting on the vastness and beauty of our
earth; on the many diverse paths that formed us and brought us here.
On God or chance or karma. On whatever led that huge rock to settle
exactly there, as many of us seem to have settled in Doña
Ana County, New Mexico.
A
day to appreciate Giovanni’s contemplative nature, piety, healing,
and love of our natural world.
A
day to honor the wondrous beauty that surrounds us here, however we
choose to do so. A day to share that wonder, without carping that
this one doesn’t believe everything I believe, or that that one
supports political figures anathema to me. A day when we don’t
divide ourselves by concerns that our neighbor doesn’t share our
religious or spiritual beliefs, ethnicity, skin color, or sexual
identity. A day to share our gratitude for what we have, without
arguing about Who or what has given it to us.
Even
if I believe you are poisoning our Earth and killing off species, and
you believe I am killing nascent lives that will turn into children
if all goes well – if whosever house was on fire, would we not form
a bucket line? If our boat were sinking, would we not all shut up
and bail? Well, our boat is sinking in a cesspool of selfishness,
greed, lies, and ideological fervor. Let’s bail.
I
suspect that’s what Giovanni would want us to do, so let’s pause
each April 17th
to celebrate Giovanni, who loved our mountains, lived and healed
where we walk, and is embedded in local history. He preached
Catholic sermons, but belongs to all of us.
We
have plenty of passionate rallies and marches are about protesting
each other. Let’s share
Giovanni Day, celebrating our mountains and land and culture and
silences. Together. Who knows, we might learn to like each other.
–
30 --
[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 2 February 2020, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website. A spoken version will air Wednesday and Saturdya on KRWG and Thursday afternoon on KTAL, 101.5 FM Las Cruces Community Radio, and is available on the KRWG website.]
[I plan at least to go up to La Cueva as early as I can on 17 April, which I think is on a Friday. Spend a little longer up there. Maybe beforehand remind a few others it's Giovanni Day. Or el dia del ermitario. Imagine having the patience to spend so long in the cave, mostly alone. Few of us these days can bear being alone even for a few hours! Aside from the spiritual dimension, I suspect one MUST develop a little self-knowledge and some amount of inner peace by doing so.]
Good use of apophasis - claiming, "share that wonder, without carping that this one doesn’t believe everything I believe, or that that one supports political figures anathema to me," followed by, "I believe you are poisoning our Earth and killing off species, and you believe I am killing nascent lives," and "our boat is sinking in a cesspool of selfishness, greed, lies, and ideological fervor."
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