Tag: Liberty Lausterer

Liberty Lausterer: Hitch Your Wagon to the Stars

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Our guest blogger, Liberty Lausterer, is back with another introspective look at our square state. Liberty moved to Wyoming within this past year, and offers us her perspective at life in the Cowboy State from a new resident’s eyes.

 

HITCH YOUR WAGON TO THE STARS

Here’s a scary thought. According to Tyler Nordgren, author of Stars Above, Earth Below: Astronomy in the National Parks, 50% of children born this year will never see the Milky Way. I’m no astronomer, but I’d say that’s pretty tragic news.

At a recent talk Nordgren gave at UW, he shared how light pollution is quickly turning the night sky into a rare commodity. We have now entered the era in which families across the U.S. will have to pack their kiddos into a car and drive a lengthy distance to a national park (spending lots of money on gas and lodging and drive-through meals), all so their kids can see the stars. And in some cases (such as Great Smoky Mountains National Park) not even the parks are immune to the devastating effects of light pollution.

The good news is we in Wyoming don’t have many city lights. It’s one of the many things I love about living in a sparsely populated state! But what our children, and our children’s children, will see in the coming generations depends a lot on the choices we make today. From the lights we install in our yards to light up our walkways, to the street lights we approve as communities, the fate of Wyoming’s night sky rests in our hands.

image by Tyler Nordgren

John Muir, the naturalist, said “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” My husband and I have stopped turning the front porch light on when we leave for the evening. I guess you could say it’s our small act of gratitude for the gift of this incredible Wyoming sky we share. So hitch your wagon to the stars!

 

 

Wilson, WY’s Answer to the Winter Doldrums – by Liberty Lausterer

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Liberty Lausterer, our guest blogger, is back with another look at life in Wyoming from a new resident’s eyes. We greatly appreciate learning what our state looks & learns like to someone new – always keeps the perspective fresh!

 

Wilson, Wyoming’s Answer to the Winter Doldrums

by Liberty Lausterer

As a newcomer to Wyoming I have paid close attention when someone tells me what they do to make it through these long, cold winter months. The advice has been wide and varied: take up a winter sport, learn a new hobby like knitting, take full advantage of your Netflix membership, read those books that have been on your list for eons, and be sure to take a trip to a warmer climate in April or May (a.k.a. “Get the hell out of Dodge.”). This is great advice but you may have noticed that many of these and other winter activities are solitary ones. In a sparsely populated state that is beset by hostile weather for much of the year, how does one keep from growing lonely and isolated? Where do you go in subzero temperatures to connect with other people?

Wilson, Wyoming’s answer to the winter doldrums is the Stagecoach Bar. Over the past seventy years the Stagecoach Bar has been that rare place where people from all walks of life are brought together by music and dancing. It’s the place people could stay connected to each other through snow and ice, despite frigid temps and unrelenting winds. On any given Sunday evening one can see wranglers, hippies, bikers, cowboys, ski bums, millionaires, dudes, and curmudgeons on the dance floor together. The story of how a bar became the glue that holds together an unlikely mix of people has been told by filmmaker Jennifer Tennican in her documentary “The Stagecoach Bar: An American Crossroads.”

If you are interested to learn how the history of a bar could mirror the history of an entire region (Jackson Hole) and become a powerful unifying force, Tennican’s film is worth watching. But, more importantly, if you long for an experience of authentic community in your neck of the woods, then this film will provide inspiration and a reason to head to your local watering hole.

Tennican’s documentary will be screened at the Center for the Arts in Jackson on March 14th and the WYO Theater in Sheridan on May 24th.  It will also air on Wyoming PBS in May, and on dozens of other PBS stations across the country.

Liberty Lausterer: “This Wyoming Life”

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Earlier this month I saw Ira Glass give a talk at the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts in Jackson, WY. Glass is the host of the public radio show This American Life. He appeared on stage wearing a skinny grey suit and tie, having flown in from NYC, and joked that he was way overdressed for his Wyoming audience. His blue jean wearing, ice pick carrying audience cheered him on in agreement.

Then Glass did what he does best, he told stories. The stories he told, like those heard on This American Life, ranged from the weirdly mundane to the shockingly bizarre. But every story, whether it was one about an AWKWARD gaff at work, or questions surrounding a bizarre murder case in North Carolina, were told in a spirit of mystery and intrigue. Glass has reclaimed the ancient art of storytelling. Based on the huge success of the radio show and the buzz in Jackson around Glass’ appearance (a second show was added when the first one sold out in just four hours), I’d say there is something in all of us that still longs to hear a good story.

That’s the truly magnificent thing about stories, everyone has at least one to tell. And since there are only a half million people living in Wyoming that means that Wyoming stories are pretty rare as stories go. It just so happens that Wyoming Public Media has started a project to collect stories from around the state. Anyone can participate. All you have to do is show up and tell one or several stories of your life in Wyoming. You can listen here to stories that have already been collected, and you can get information about where to go to share yours.

Because while there is something exciting about someone flying in from NYC to share stories that are broadcast all over the nation and beyond, I’d say there’s something even more meaningful about hearing stories from this Wyoming life.

“Mama, Rock Me Like a Wagon Wheel…”

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Thanks to our contributing blogger, Liberty Lausterer, for a look into square dancing! Thought of as country past times, square dancing and line dancing can be found throughout Wyoming. Liberty takes a look into the art of square dancing…

by Liberty Lausterer

Square Dancing Caller to Dancers:

“Bow to your partner. Corner too. Circle left. Heads up to the center and back. Sides, Grand Square. Turn a corner. California Twirl. Dosados and swing your partner!”

Old Crow Medicine Show

If this square dancing speak reads a little like a foreign language, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Up until two months ago I had no idea what most of these calls meant. But when we moved to Wyoming it seemed like the perfect way to embrace the west. Plus the Quadra Dangle in Laramie is just a really neat space, and piece of Union Pacific Railroad history in Wyoming. And when the caller played Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel,” Mumford and Sons, Stevie Wonder, and Zumba music during the open house I was all in.

Next month my husband and I will complete our three months of Mainstream Lessons. Mainstream means we can literally travel anywhere in the world and dance the same exact calls we dance in Wyoming. But that’s not even the best part. What is truly amazing about square dancing is that you get to embrace a piece of western culture, and you get to embrace your partner (not to mention lots of other people’s partners).

A fast-paced scene at Laramie’s Quadra Dangle, courtesy Liberty Lausterer

I happen to dance in Laramie, but there are clubs all over the state. The Quadra Dangle will offer another session of lessons in January. So rock me mama like a wagon wheel!

Handmade in WY

Posted on by wlmeditor

Thanks to Liberty Lausterer for a look into gift giving this holiday season. Liberty moved to Wyoming a few months ago, and in that time has been on a quest to learn more about herself and her new home. I appreciate the viewpoint that she brings to her writing that we can share here – learning about our state from a new resident’s perpsective!

HANDMADE IN WYOMING — by Liberty Lausterer

“But it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy something, which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith’s.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Gifts

What handmade gift might you make this holiday season that represents your life and talent? I’ve never made handmade gifts before, so this is new territory for me. In fact I just started knitting and hesitate to call what I’m doing a bonafide talent. But each knitted washcloth I give to family members will definitely be a small incarnation of my life in Wyoming. And in each one will be a handmade bar of soap created by some talented people from Wyoming. Giving a gift that I have made with my own two hands does seem to imbue it with a warm, life-giving spirit. And if not my hands then certainly the hands of someone else whose life in Wyoming has been woven into each creation.

The felting class I took at Works of Wyoming means I can now also create an e-reader cover, a table piece for candles, coaster, wall hanging, and more. From my lived experience comes a tangible gift that allows my family in Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to feel and see what my life in Wyoming is like.

This weekend after the Thanksgiving dust has settled and the Christmas shopping extravaganza begins perhaps instead of joining the masses we, each of us, can use our time to create something that represents our life and talent. And if not our life and talent then certainly that of an artisan from Wyoming.

Here are just some of the shops that carry handmade items in Wyoming, and please post other places you know of from around the state:

Wild Hands ~ Hoback Jct

Crafts-n-Collectibles ~ Cody

MADE ~ Jackson Hole

Works of Wyoming ~ Laramie

Buffalo Bill Continues to Win Hearts of Europeans

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Looking for a great Wyoming Christmas gift? Check out our WLM + Wyovore 2013 package – for just $20! 

Thanks to Liberty Lausterer for another great feature… this time, Liberty takes us across the pond for a look at how the Europeans view a great Wyoming legend, Buffalo Bill…

BUFFALO BILL CONTINUES TO WIN HEARTS OF EUROPEANS

by Liberty Lausterer – images credited as noted

Travel Tip:  If you travel to Europe, and happen to enter into casual conversation with a local, BE PREPARED. Be prepared that when an Italian, or a Frenchman, or an Englishman learns you are from WY you may suddenly be given the fanfare and paparazzi usually reserved for celebrity. You have Buffalo Bill to thank for this.

I learned this from a European who wears snazzy black cowboy boots and has an encyclopedic knowledge of William F. Cody. Her name is Julia Stetler. Julia is a German citizen and fell in love with the American west while she lived here as a foreign exchange student. The frontier, Buffalo Bill, and her husband (whom she affectionally calls “her cowboy”) won her European heart.  Now she spends her days as the Associate Editor of the Papers of William F. Cody at the  Buffalo Bill Historical Center of the West in Cody, WY.

www.legendsofamerica.com-

Wild West and Congress of the Rough Riders of the World, by Courier Litho. Co., 1899 advertising poster

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show made three European tours between 1887 and 1906. Cody saw himself as a cultural ambassador, whose job it was to impress Europeans and raise their esteem of Americans. Cody timed the shows so they accompanied some of the most significant world events of the time, like Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in London (God Save the Queen!) and the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris. Europeans were sold. They received the show lock, stock, and barrel.

 

Publisher: JMP & Lithography.  c. 1889

1889parisworldfair.wikia.com

Of course there’s a lot more to the story (how each country uniquely received Cody and the role of Native Americans). For this and more watch out for Julia’s forthcoming book entitled, European Wild West. In the meantime, don’t worry about impressing anyone, just proclaim you are from WY and hearts will be won.

 

Cheers! Ciao! Hurraa!

 

 

UW Women’s Leadership Conference features Dr. Erin Foley

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We’re very excited to introduce contributor Liberty Lausterer! Liberty moved to Wyoming with her husband and cats in July 2013. She is excited to explore the vast riches of this place, its people, and the cross-country skiing trails. Originally from eastern Nebraska, she studied history in college in Iowa, followed by graduate work in California. She spent the past nine years as a Lutheran pastor and is ready to see what new opportunities await her in Wyoming. Her hobbies include writing, swimming, herding cats, the adventure of high-altitude baking, trolling the web for interior design inspiration, and she is currently learning to knit her first hat. Welcome, Liberty!

 

by Liberty Lausterer

This weekend (November 8th-9th) I attended the UW Women’s Leadership Conference.  The conference was intended to empower women in Wyoming by teaching us to embrace our strengths, leave behind our weaknesses, and take hold of a life that brings us true happiness. The two day event featured a keynote speaker and three workshops, all intended to equip women with the tools necessary to live strong lives, embracing the very best of what we have to offer.

Keynote speaker, Dr. Erin Foley, teaches Communication Arts at State University of New York at Oneonta. In her keynote, entitled “The Fearless Female and the Freedom to be HAPPY,” Dr. Foley posed the following questions to women:

What if we were less obsessed with beauty?

What if we embraced confidence instead of modesty?

What if we got comfortable with confrontation?

What if we focused on abundance instead of scarcity?

What if we focused on our strengths and not our weaknesses?

Foley explained how cultural beliefs teach women to play down our strengths, creating a false sense of modesty and feeding into a mentality of scarcity. Rather than affirming ourselves and other women, we tell ourselves “I am not enough.” This hypercritical, “Mean Girls,” environment breeds desperation and jealousy. Women end up fixated on all that we are not, instead of engaging with the things that make us feel energized and strong.

The time we spend eradicating our weaknesses pulls us away from cultivating our strengths, says Foley. She defines a strength as the place where your skill meets an emotional state. When you are doing something well, and it leaves you energized, you have honed in on a strength. We may be good at many things, but if they don’t fill us up, we won’t be able to sustain the energy to excel at them. We can perform well in an area, and still end up feeling weak, tired, bored, and frustrated. Foley challenges women to look for the moments that feel good to us, lean into them, and we will lead more fulfilling, strong lives. “Excellence,” says Foley, “is fueled by passion.”

For a suggested donation of $10 this conference certainly delivered ten fold on content and encouragement. It feels especially meaningful when placed against the backdrop of Wyoming’s equality heritage. In a state with a long history of strong female leadership it is encouraging to discover ways women are coming together to support each other, find inspiration for our passions and purpose, and forge new pathways as leaders in Wyoming.