Another World

I am having trouble finding my way around in San Crostobal de las Casas. I am having trouble finding my way around the keyboard used by folks who speak and write Spanish all the time, but mainly, I am having trouble with information overload. The streets and houses and stores and restaurants all look very different from the ones I´m used to "reading" as I pass by. I am here to learn Spanish, and I am learning a great deal more.

Señora Carmelita, my hostess while I am here, made a wonderful mole for dinner this midday, rich and subtle. On the streets, vendors sell all sorts of good smelling things I am forbidden by my friendly experts on foreign travel to eat. Everything is very colorful and clean. Since this is Holy Week, there are lots of tourists here, also lots of vendors with things both handmade and not. People seem relaxed and busy; some look worn and weary, presumably from a life of too much work. Even with such reminders of the less than ideal truth about the place, it is a pleasant place to be.

At the same time, everyone is very poor -- well, not everyone-- but the overall effect is of people with not anywhere near as much stuff as we are used to in Northeastern United States in the middle class. There are cars, but a minority seem to have them. There is pretty good water, though it is not really safe to drink it. Most everyone buys bottled water because they have to, not because of choice or preference. Schools, a mother and child clinic, a cultural center with weekend activities for kids, a little public library -- there is clearly a public sector providing services, though I am not quite sure how it all works. Several colleges and a university are here, too. There is this disquieting matter of people with automatic weapons in unmarked uniforms, a reminder that there really are justice issues still pending. This part of Mexico has the lowest income and the lowest literacy rate, so for sure there is work to be done.

I also have no idea how this city impacts the earth with its existence, but there are fewer engines, fewer electric motors, fewer light bulbs, fewer heating elements, and such than there would be in a city with "our" standard of living. At night, if I get up and cross the dark courtyard to the bathroom, there are stars visible in the sky. Not so in Manchester, NH.

I guess it is reminding me that there is more to a good life than stuff. Meaningful work, families, a sense that there is enough... the young man of the house where I am staying is studying to become a veterinarian so he can care for small wild animals and travel to Africa where they are endangered.

This is another world, and maybe a glimpse of a world to come. It is not the world I know, but for most, it is not a place of privation. So let us not be afraid as we think about reducing our carbon footprints. The report from here is that there can be plenty of joy and satisfaction in a life with a lot less of material things.