The Hard Way

When giving Adrian advice while he was growing up I used to say I didn't want him to have to learn the hard way. I was reminded of this the other night while training Holly to close down the bar. It's not rocket science, but there are some little details that one wants to pass on such as, don't pull the plugs on all three sinks at the washing station simultaneously or the drain will overflow. It only takes doing it once to figure it out for yourself, and sure enough, Holly saw what I meant when she forgot (it had been a long day!) and water came spilling out on her shoes. As we laughed about it, she told me of the list she's compiling of things no one ever tells you not to do. Cutting duct tape with your teeth was on it. She learned this difficult fact when she ended up pulling half her lip off. Now that I think of it, why isn't there a warning for this on the package?

Just like we want to share our warnings, we want to let others know about good things they might enjoy experiencing. Learning a lesson from experience is hard, but discovering something great on your own makes the experience better. Being naturally enthusiastic, I have become reserved in my endorsements of certain things, if for no other reason than I feel I have more appreciation if I'm not expecting much, and want to give others this gift. This is especially true for movies. Some of my best movie-watching experiences came when I got to sneak into tech screenings at Alamo with no information other than what was printed on the poster. I avoid reading reviews and turn off the radio when upcoming films are being discussed, yet it's still difficult to go into a theater these days without having some kind of idea what the movie's about, and that is by far the best way to enjoy it. 

I think Marfa fits into this category, too. Luckily, there is no public relations person for the town and no campaign to bring in more tourists. In a recent NPR story about the arts scene in Marfa, the director of the Chinati Foundation stated that they didn't do marketing, and actually sounded offended by the question. Marfa is a word of mouth sort of place - it's about the search. Setting out on a path, meeting different people who help steer you, making your own discoveries on the way. Streets and buildings have no signs. It's part of the aesthetic as well as the mystique, like the Marfa Lights (which I tell people really aren't much to get excited about). Talking it up seems to  detract from the specialness. It reminds me of an episode of The Simpsons where Marge is talking to Bart and Lisa about what it means to be cool. She says, 'Well how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we've tried everything here." Don't try, just be. 


The first time I visited Marfa, I had no information other than a few photos on the El Cosmico website. The woman at the front desk there gave my friend and me a small map and pointed out both Padre's and the late night grilled cheese parlor and vintage electronics museum (which at that time didn't have a proper name...or sign). We found Padre's, but grilled cheese eluded us until the following night when a row of miniature TVs in the window glowed like a holy grail, and strange music from an empty school bus let us know we had found something special. I tried to give Adrian and Wynne the space to make their own discoveries on this first visit, and found that directing them came with challenges, anyway. Not knowing street names myself, they got a lot of, 'go down to the blinking red light and turn towards the courthouse...it's down there on the left somewhere'. Though I personally took them to the grilled cheese parlor when I learned that they missed it the previous night. Its amazingness cannot be overstated!

In this world where advertising is directed at us in every possible way, it's nice to be in a place that is generally free from that type of manipulation. We'll be waiting here for you to find us. Just go through the blinking red light and take a right on the street just past the church.