A combination of family ties and a love of the high country led
my wife and me to Cody, Wyoming, this past Memorial Day weekend.
On the flight out of Denver, we had the opportunity to
visit with retired Senator Alan K. Simpson (R-WY) who should be
drawing combat pay for serving as Co-Chair on the President’s
new National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and
Reform.
The Senator was kind enough to look at a recent article
of mine for TAS on the current budgetary and entitlement
crisis. He, in turn, gave me a copy of an
article by a professor from Syracuse University which argues,
among other things, that the already miserable budget projections
from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) are based on
ridiculously optimistic assumptions in terms of future GDP growth
and interest rates.
But we were on vacation, and the conversation soon turned
to more important matters: our lovely daughter’s work, just north
of Cody, at a working ranch for “at risk” teenage girls; the
prospects for a young person in Wyoming; and, of course, Yellowstone and, our favorite,
Grand Teton National
Parks.
We took a late dinner and slept soundly after a long day of
travel. Early the next morning, we met our daughter for Mass at
St. Anthony’s Church in Cody, right next to the very impressive
Buffalo Bill Historical
Center.
Parenthetically, I should note that the Center is actually
five museums in one, encompassing firearms, Western art, Plains
Indian Peoples, Buffalo Bill and the American West and the nature
of the Yellowstone basin. Talk about market segmentation! We were
particularly impressed with its collection of paintings and
sculptures by Remington, Russell, Bierstadt, Catlin and N.C.
Wyeth. It is a very impressive institution and a source of
tremendous local pride as one learns after just a few
conversations with the good folks working there.
Back at St. Anthony’s our celebrant, Father Joseph, a
Nigerian priest of high energy, gave good value with a rousing
sermon on the importance of loving one another, especially
husbands and wives — and it wasn’t even Sunday. He also offered
a heartfelt prayer for the soldiers and police officers “who
protect us.” This was certainly appreciated with Memorial Day
soon upon us.
Father Joseph insisted that we join him for coffee
afterwards in the rectory where the walls were covered with
trophy heads of moose, elk and deer with a few bear skins on the
floor. The pastor, Father Joseph’s boss, is a serious
hunter.
Father Joseph is now assigned to the Cheyenne Diocese and,
as with most priests in that part of the world, rides the circuit
for those parishes without clergy. He also travels around the
country raising money for the Church back in his homeland.
In Jackson and Powell, Wyoming, priests from the
Philippines and Detroit celebrated the Eucharist in their
respective parishes.
As Yogi Berra said, upon
learning that Robert Briscoe, who was Jewish, was elected Lord
Mayor of Dublin in 1956, “Only in America.”
Our daughter works and lives north of Cody and east of
Yellowstone. This part of Wyoming is not at all gentrified by
Hollywood stars or Dotcom moguls. It is working ranch and farm
country, amidst spectacular, challenging landscapes, both basin
and range. People there know each other well, and many are
kinsmen with deep roots in the neighborhood. Protestant, Catholic
and Mormon churches are thick on the ground in the few towns in
the area.
At a local Baptist Church, near Clark, Wyoming, we saw
several horses tethered outside, along with numerous trailers
containing even more animals, awaiting worshippers who were
probably looking forward to a bit of exercise after
services.
On all the farms and ranches, we could see piping strewn
across the ground for irrigation purposes. This, along with the
numerous reservoirs and canals throughout the region, reminded us
that this was very arid country which does not yield its bounty
without great toil and effort.
I often recall my father describing Wyoming as the state
where men are men and women are governors. It was the first state
to elect a woman to that top executive job. Not for nothing is it
called the Equality State. The sense of community and
egalitarianism is palpable and far removed from the stratified
and divided society of Washington, D.C. and its suburbs.
Unfortunately, my wife and I were leaving Wyoming too early
and would miss the summertime rodeo in Cody. However, we also
missed the summer traffic jams — RVs, mini-vans, touring buses
— which clog the two-lane roads into Yellowstone and the
Tetons.
The highlights of the trip were meeting the girls at the
ranch and having dinner with our daughter and her colleagues who
work with them as counselors and mentors. For these youngsters
faith, hope, love and self-respect are hard-won prizes to be
gained only with struggle, fortitude and encouragement from their
families and counselors. As the Hebrew saying goes, “He who saves
a life saves the world entire.” Such was the great love my wife
and I found in Wyoming this Memorial Day 2010.
