Facebook introduced me to Kristy McConville. It was a comment she made on one of my posts. It wasn't a deep or insightful comment. It was a funny aside. I'd posted an interesting illusion of a display of vegetables. Lying across the middle of the display is a woman's form composed of the vegetables on display. My first response was typical of me, "Purity blended with nourishment."
Debra Gibson, a wonderful and gift singer and composer
said, “Looks like someone already grabbed the melons…
Kristy responded in good humor. “Debra....You are a hoot.... and yes, the melons have
already been claimed.... haha.... do you think this is permanent tattooing?
“Kristy, you think that
is a tattoo? I asked.
“I thought it was… Maybe
stick ons… haha!”
Innocent enough, huh?
Well, it could have been nothing or it could’ve been something. I made
something of it, I guess because I looked at her profile picture and looked
into her face, and saw adventure. White women, more than any other group of
women in today’s world, are more associated with the distance they can walk
from the image, and role of motherhood into rugged, exciting dangerous sport,
and adventures. The ‘best’ of white women are both physically measured, and
judged, or they are a challenge to the norm by their actions and small
concerne for the frivolous concerns of the more popular aspect of being a
grown woman! Women in other groups are typically associated with survival, and
that in itself has its own appeal with staying alive and afloat being so
vitally important.
There is a long history
leading up to this modern fact of modern life in the West, and as time goes
past the grave stones of those who lived, and laid down their lives for better
conditions for the next generations perhaps more women will take on the
challenge of their convictions, and dream of the outdoors, not as an opponent,
but as an adventure, and a centerpiece of sacred matrimony, rejuvenation, centering
and grounding into the memories of the female energies embedded within the
dirt, and coiling around what grows out of the Earth, covers her, as well. But
these thoughts came to me after I read snippets of her life revealed here and
there about who she is and how she sees, and moves in the world.
“I adored living in
Wyoming....Driving the team of Belgians was at a friends Cattle/Horse Ranch out
West of Pinedale Wyoming....and the picture with my Quarte Horse AJ was at
another friends cattle ranch south of Jackson Hole, near the very tiny town of
Bondurant...”
“I really loved living in Jackson Hole and never ever would have left but accepted a marriage proposal from an old flame....which turned out to be a real nightmare in many ways....but that is a story for another day....Went on many Pack Trips with my wonderful horse AJ......(I often packed in alone, which in retrospect was not a great idea)........up into The Windriver Wilderness and had a semi-permanent little camp set up which was wonderful....When I packed in alone, I would usually meet friends up there....”
“I worked for Ted Hatch
as a Swamper and Naturalist Interpreter for 10yrs and was the first girl he
ever hired and the first girl hired on the river that I know of...Georgene
Billingsly was pretty close there too...I started down there in 1970....Besides
Georgie White, was the first girl with 100trips thru The Grand...and Steve was
first to have 100trips for a man.....”
Her interest and
training in Fine Arts, Geology, Spanish Anthropology, and her Bachelor of Science degree mask her
durable vibrancy. These combinations, I am sure, are not the whole of the
person, the woman, but for young women this is a life worth examining: an adventurous one. © Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
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| Kristy McConville |
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| Kristy McConville |
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