WITH SANTA FEANS
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While politicians and others in public life frequently make appearances in SFR Talk, the past year also included interviews with numerous residents who live interesting lives and are engaged in innovative-and sometimes odd-endeavors. Here's a selection of what Santa Feans had to say in 2006:
"Never surrender your free will or your discernment. If you're just doing what some astrologer told you simply because you're putting your full faith and trust in them, you're being a fool. It's a wise person who rules the stars and a fool who is ruled by them."
-Steven McFadden (1), astrologer [Jan. 11: "
"].
"When I say to you, 'Here's your chai,' and I just walk off, that's different from my saying, 'You know, this chai has no caffeine and it's made from a traditional recipe in India and it's got the five main digestive herbs so when you're drinking this it really pumps your organs up for digestion and gets you ready for the day.' That's a vibration, a consciousness, and there's a passion around that."
-Lorin Parrish (2), executive director of New Mexico Academy of Healing Arts, owner of Body [Feb. 8: "
"].
"When I came to Santa Fe nine years ago, I had $200 and whatever fit in my 1986 Thunderbird. So, from my point of view, you can be very poor and work your way up. It's really about who you're willing to be and if you're willing to step out of the role that your family of origin and peer group has put you in."
-Joan Sotkin (3), author of
Build Your Money Muscles
[March 22: "
"].
"About four years ago I started having these dreams. The chimps would come to me and teach me how to be in my body. And I just listened. Once you start reading you really understand the breadth of suffering they're going through. My heart opened up to their suffering and there was no turning back."
-Debra Rosenman (4), founder of Project Sweet Dreams to get blankets for chimpanzees [April 12: "
"].
"You know, I used to enjoy the old cycle-you'd work on a film all summer, then hibernate. We had equilibrium; now it's competitive. At least people here in Santa Fe, at the end of the day, can go to El Farol and life's OK."
-Michael Dellheim (5), film location manager [May 17: "
"].
"I think intuition is my biggest motivator. If it feels like something, then I trust it and if it doesn't feel right I say no."
-Ronn Stewart (6), artistic director of Moving People Dance Theatre [June 14: "
"].
"My quarrel with the Religious Right is that they're insufficiently pro-life. You have these people who profess to hear a 'fetal scream' and yet they turn a deaf ear to the cries of those who are being tortured in the name of a government that they put into place."
-Randall Balmer (7), author of Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America [July 5: "
"].
"The thing that was really surprising to me was the amazing outpouring of love and kindness. When we got here, I had every single person I knew trying to give me money, clothes, offering whatever they possibly could to me."
-Hanna Porter (8), Hurricane Katrina refugee [Aug. 30: "
"].
"I've had my minor five minutes-or five seconds-of fame. It's been cool, but I don't think that's a career path I'd like to go down. I'd like to make a difference doing something substantial, and flaunting looks isn't something I find to be substantial."
-Lucy McDermott (9), winner of the Mudd Jeans teen activist essay contest [Sept. 13: "
"].
"I think I'm strong in counterattacking situations but I'm not very good on the attack. I'm from Santa Fe, so I just take it easy and let things happen. I don't try to go out there and take control of things right away."
-Jesse Kraai (10), state chess champion and International Master [Oct. 18: "
"].
"What we're finding in Santa Fe is that hunger is a hidden crisis. There may be three or four or five families living under one roof to make ends meet. And it's surprising, because Santa Fe is such a wealthy community-or it's perceived to be such a wealthy community-but we have many people, thousands of people, who seek help, emergency help, through the system, weekly, if not at least once a month."
-Sherry Hooper (11), executive director of The Food Depot [Nov. 22: "
"].
"I like to think we keep it somewhat entertaining and informative, but it is what it is. I mean, we're not curing cancer. We're not solving the world's problems."
-Jeff Siembieda (12), executive director of the New Mexico Bowl, about his radio show, "The Big Show with Jeff Siembieda" [Dec. 13: "
"].
