Micaeous Clay Pot

10” x 10” x 9”

When working within a large healthcare organization, I had the opportunity to travel to Tanzania on several occasions. While I felt at home in cities, I felt terribly unsettled when I was on the plains and in the spartan villages of the Tanzanian people. I knew how to live with the hubbub of our cities, but not the earthiness of their country. Said another way, the Tanzanian people were at home with the earth in a way that I was not. Today I live in Santa Fe, an area of the country in which its peoples have long been at home with earthiness. Here, pots have been fashioned from the soil for centuries. I have often wondered if fashioning pots from clay would yield some of the secrets known to Native Americans as well as the Tanzanian people. The answer is yes. In Africa, I learned about how I had grown apart from the earth. In the Southwest I learned about having grown apart from the spirit. Making pots slows you down. You cannot easily run from thinking about yourself, your ways, others, their ways. and ultimately the Other.