Letters to the Editor

Write about what’s right

under your nose, teacher says

Editor:

“Sometimes, things to write about are right under your nose.” That’s what a writing teacher said.

So I looked at the milkshake that I was drinking. It is a homemade milkshake. My auntie once said that I may come up with a famous recipe someday. I’m still trying.

This is rather an offbeat thing — milk, banana, peanut butter and syrup. Now let’s take the milk — fresh, delicious, “the world’s most perfect food,” someone said. Tasty, sweet, it makes you feel good in body, mind and spirit.

Then there is the peanut butter — lots of vitamins, someone said. Grown in New Mexico, good for the local economy, Valencia peanuts originated in Valencia, Spain. They take the peanuts in the hull that have slight blemishes and — here we go, instant protein.

A food that requires no kitchen preparation — inexpensive food.

Then the banana, fresh fruit, inexpensive, slightly sweet, little preparation needed. Available even in the dead of winter. It makes for good relations with our neighbors to the south.

Then there is the syrup. I have no idea where it comes from, but every time I mention it, my little father says quietly “molasses” — he is from Louisiana. You know, sugar cane and all that jazz.

All this was right under my nose!

I greatly admire writers who just stay home and write. None of this “I gotta go buy this or I gotta go to see them or I gotta go there.” Emily Dickinson comes to mind.

The mind is probably the better place to write from anyway.

Martin Frank Kirtley

Los Lunas

(Editor’s note: Letters to the editor must include a telephone number for verification of authorship. If you have questions about letters, please call Sandy Battin at 864-4472. Letters run on a first-come, first-served basis.)