Knowing where to look

EL PASO - We climbed out from the blankets into the freezing air (29 degrees!). We had stayed the night in a Loves Truck stop, in between two tractor trailers that idled their auxiliary Diesel engines all night, but at least blocked some of the dust storm that was blowing in from the desert. I got up to pee and was was sand blasted with cold air and grit. We used the truck stop bathroom and pulled out at 6:37 this  morning without so much as brushing our teeth. 

Traversing across the American southwest, I have been catching the news of the insurrection and attack on our nation’s Capitol in snatches. (When I drove across the country 10 years ago, cellular service was still a luxury. Now there are only patches along the highways where I have been unable to get a signal.)

We fly through the mountain pass leading to El Paso, and I think of the Wal-Mart shooting there only a year and a half ago, in which the shooter targeted Latino families and killed 23 people. 

I stare out onto the expanse of federal land and private ranches, seeking some kind of hope amid the yuccas and the sagebrush. 

I got nothing. 

On my last cross-country trip a decade ago, I stopped in a mini-mart in Quartzite, an RV town in western Arizona and one of the hottest places in the U.S. where summer temperatures can reach 120 degrees. 

As I lifted water jugs onto the counter, I struck up a conversation with the man behind the counter. Or rather, he struck up the conversation with me. 

He told me how he used to visit Quartzite with his wife when she was sick, because her body adjusted well to the warm winters. He said she loved it there. After she died, he moved to Quartzite permanently to be closer to the happy memories he had shared with her. 

He told me that despite the vastness of brown baked earth, sand and grit around us, there are springs in the mountains that create micro-climates, where life thrives. He said his wife loved searching for these micro-climates.

“Beauty is all around here,” he said, starting to cry. “You just have to know where to look.”

Stunned by this revelation, I turned to the couple in line behind me, hoping to share this moment with others. 

They caught my gaze and rolled their eyes.