It’s good to see life from the other fellows point of view. like the old Indian adage, “before criticizing another you should walk a mile in his moccasins.” We got to do pretty near that at the end of April when we climbed to the top of Medicine Mound, near Chillicothe Texas. We got invited to a Comanche gathering at Mule creek near the Pease river, at the full moon. It was to commemorate the life of Cynthia Ann Parker, the mother of the last great Comanche war chief, Quanah!

This cowboy climbed the sacred mound with a group of Comanches, and white folks, including my wife Sallie. In fifteen years of the gathering it was the first time women were invited. we climbed steeply upward through sliding rocks, cactus, mesquite and cedar. At the top, breathless already, we were met with a breathtaking view of the Great Plains below! This is a Comanche holy place, their equivalent of a temple. It was easy to see why. Then, to add to the feeling of “really being there”, drumming and singing in Comanche, we were each blessed by a Comanche holy man during a prayer ceremony given in both Comanche and English.

Coming back down to earth from a mountain top experience is difficult under any circumstances. It has been a challenge to return to a real time world with computers, twenty four hour news barrage, and a worried world where men don’t see one another as brothers. Sometimes I almost wish the Comanches had won the Red River War! But I do appreciate indoor toilets.