January 2015 | Kate Vale

Cross-Cultural Mixes

January 26, 2015 by Kate Vale

I have always been intrigued by the differences ( as well as the similarities between and across cultures.) For example, in so many cultures, breads are important additions to many meals. How many cultures can you think of that use a flat bread, often in a circular or oval shape?

This past holiday season, I was treated to two more examples of the mixing of cultures via dress. One might even call them icons, inasmuch as the elements served as representatives of different cultures. The picture to the right is one example: a delightful pre-schooler wearing Minnie Mouse socks and Indian anklets with tiny bells (called jhanjara). It was easy to hear her coming as she joyfully tripped from one room to the other, those little bells around her ankles tinkling with each step.
Yet another example was an East Asian woman wearing a beautiful red Salwar Kameez outfit. Because the outside temperature was much colder than she preferred, she had topped her traditional Indian dress with a gorgeous wool Norwegian sweater perfect for protection against the chill!

In considering how poorly the representatives of different nations sometimes communicate with each other, I was struck with how “right” it seems to see the above combinations of different cultural dress. I suspect the attitudes of the wearers also reflects the acceptance and melding of different cultures as well.

Here’s to every individual embracing the wide variety of cultures and their values in our world, irrespective of national boundaries and languages!

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Fair Weather Fandom

January 20, 2015January 19, 2015 by Kate Vale

In 2012, the Seattle Seahawks had a good season that captured my imagination when they almost-but-not-quite made it through the playoffs. As a result, I paid much closer attention to their games through the 2013 season. I was thrilled when they won the Super Bowl.

Throughout the 2014 season, I have made a point of watching as many of their games as possible. In one case, I was at an airport one Sunday and when a huge cheer went up from a nearby sports bar, I was compelled to ask another passenger scheduled for the same flight what the noise was all about. He beamed and reported that the Seahawks had just scored a touchdown. He also knew the score at that point, so I wended my way onto the plane anticipating that my team was on its way to winning that game, too. (Which they did.)

I approached the playoff games this season keeping my fingers and toes crossed that the Seahawks would again make the playoffs. (My fear was that this formerly fair-weather fan’s wishes would become the “kiss of death.” Thus, I have not mentioned the Superbowl to my friends and acquaintances who have another favorite team.)

In the interests of full disclosure, I admit to having been a nearly-rabid Cornhuskers fan when I lived in Nebraska. But how could I not, when they were winners in the day and everyone in our neighborhood sported team flags and other paraphernalia. While my son couldn’t be bothered, I usually repaired to the garden and listened to the games on a portable radio, cheering loudly after each touchdown. My cheers usually blended with those floating out the open windows of my neighbors until cold winter winds chased us all indoors to watch the game on TV with the sound muted, the better to hear our favorite radio guys calling the game.

Now I find we are going to the Superbowl, after a playoff game no one could have predicted. Perhaps that last 5-minute reprieve was the result of receipt of a late-Christmas present to me: a much-coveted Seahawks jersey with my favorite kicker’s number (4) on it. Hey Hauschie! Regardless of why they won or how much luck and prayers had to do with it, it was trilling to join others in that Woodinville lounge screaming our lungs out when we made it to the end of the game tied and then won in overtime.

You can bet I’ll be glued to the telly watching the Superbowl this year, too!

Go, Hawks!

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A Find I Never Expected – Bisbee, AZ

January 12, 2015 by Kate Vale

Another view of the Lavender Open Pit Mine

Bisbee, AZ is at a much higher elevation than Phoenix, and located very near the Mexican border. When we arrived, one step outside the car rewarded us with far colder breezes than anticipated. After all, we figured that the farther south we went, the warmer it would be. However, I recall that it was 25 degrees F that day. Thank goodness I had my parka with the fur-lined hood!

We explored the Queen Mine that began mining copper in the 1800s. Inside the mine, the temperature and was an almost-balmy 46 degrees. Although this mine stopped being worked in the mid 1940s, the nearby Lavender open pit mine remained active until the mid 1970s; its depths were spectacular in the bright sun.

I also discovered a terrific vegan restaurant in Bisbee and a store that sells hundreds of different flavors of olive oil, in addition to jars with the label, “Frog Balls.” In actuality, those jars contained delicious pickled brussels sprouts. Yes, I sampled them, and would have taken some jars home had I not been flying.

This little town, previously housing more than 10,000 souls when the mines were working, is much smaller now, and caters primarily to tourists who wander south from the big city, as well as those less inclined to stop in touristy Tombstone with the cowboys who re-enact the “fight at the OK corral.” That violence actually took place in a bar, according to one of the actors we spoke with.

Never been to southern Arizona? Go and explore. There are many things to see there, including the caverns we didn’t get a chance to explore, and the stargazing opportunities at the Kitts Peak Observatory. Those are just two of the places I plan to visit on my next trip to warmer climes—which means planning my visit when the temps are above freezing, preferably in the 70s!

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Arizona Flora

January 8, 2015January 5, 2015 by Kate Vale

A recent trip to the Desert Botanical Gardens in Scottsdale, Arizona, yielded a plethora of unique shapes–in spite of the unseasonably cold weather that had me thankful to have worn a parka.

Ironwood shapes were an added set of sculptures that commemorated the contributions of Phil Hebets who, in 1980, “originated a tree boxing methodology that enabled over one million native plants to be salvaged rather than bulldozed.” One result of his technology is the municipal ordinances in places like Tucson that require that native plants be saved and replanted in developments. Nothing looks more out of place in a desert landscape than a green lawn more appropriately found in northern climes.

Additionally, although not yet the season for them, I found some blossoms that portend how colorful a desert landscape can be in the warmer spring months when butterflies and hummingbirds visit the area.

If you’ve never been to the botanical gardens in Scottsdale, I recommend them. The entire facility (not counting the gift shops) can be found outside. You can walk the trails, even climb a high hill that overlooks the gardens. Although located very near major thoroughfares with whizzing cars, I found myself imagining having been transported far from civilization as I wandered among the saguaros (so tall and stately) and the barrel cacti (resembling plump circles as they squatted on the ground). Even the more recent contributions of Chihuly took on a desert-like persona as they welcome visitors near the entrance.

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