Frida On My Mind by Zoe

For the last two months I have been traveling to Mexico in my mind, imagination, appreciation, trepidation, concentration, hesitation.  My legs have been walking the dog for these two months, hoping to build a bit of strength for walking on pink steps or holy grounds.  My spirit is curious about the Mayans and 2012; maybe they have called me there for a tête-à-tête.  And every time I try to say something in Spanish with some casual tone, it comes out in French as if all non-English lives in the same brain room. 

A long time ago I knew that preparation was part of the trip itself.  When I was 8, packing for the opening of Disneyland, I figured every one there would be wearing their special Disneyland outfit.  It was picked out first and packed first and had to match a set of ears.  One of the many teachers I have had taught that a trip begins with the list, the ticket, the passport app.  And so I have been traveling for a while now. 

I am not alone when I say that reading something once, seeing something once, brushing past something briefly doesn’t stick so I have immersed myself in all things Frida.  Possibly some facebook activist friends have thought I left the building, with all my Mexico posts, but that is not the case.  I do what I have to at 63, to remember, to know, to seer into my vision.  And they would not know me or Frida well to think such a thing; both bisexual, both radical, both political.  She is complex and interesting.  She tells us so much through the visual; painting, photos, clothes, jewelry and her homes.  I had the good fortune to have lived with a painter, a surrealist painter, for many years.  I can tell you that when you look at a refined exact, elegant self-portrait the artist looks nothing like that!  Paint on hands, on shoes, under nails, on the dog, on the new kitchen towel and, of course, their face.  

Now, everything I see in my closet, on my desk or rises for attention is now sized up; will it go? Will I need it? The trip to Frida is always on my mind. That's my idea of a pilgrimage and it has begun.