Rikki West
Rikki West is a birdwatcher, book lover, and student of meditation who started training in Muay Thai at age sixty-two. She holds a bachelor’s in genetics from the University of California at Berkeley and a master’s in integrative humanities from San Francisco State University. Her greatest passion is ideas, and her greatest thrill is understanding a new subject, perspective, or person. Thai kickboxing and meditation support her aspiration to awaken as much as possible before her lights go out. Now retired from a thirty-five-year high-tech management career, she is the mother of Lauren Magnolia and godmother of Morgan Lisa, and she lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with her spouse, Jill.
Have you ever experienced Imposter Syndrome?
Yes! Whenever I say, my wife or I’m a writer. My wife and I were together for 15 years as California Domestic Partners before we got legally married in 2019. As a lesbian I never expected that to happen. The picture of marriage in my mind was solely between a man and a woman. I still carry within me the heteronormative bias that my marriage is slightly bogus. I usually say, my spouse. I’m embarrassed to say, my wife, as if I were pretending at being real. And I worry that it casts me in the role of husband, which I am not! Nowadays, we are more free of these gendered notions, but I am still catching up.
The same cringing feeling happens when I say I’m a writer, but for a different reason. That’s a matter of craft. I feel the craft of writing is a lifelong challenge over which I cannot claim mastery. Though my book is coming out in September and I write words on paper every day for hours, I am more comfortable saying that I write than claiming I’m a writer.
Is there a work of art that you love. Why? Have you ever visited it in person?
Albrecht Dürer's Melencolia I. It is an engraving made in 1514, and a framed print hangs in my office. It depicts the despair of the creative intellectual struggling to achieve understanding or insight into the workings of our lives. Brooding among the remnants and symbols of alchemy, astrology, and philosophy, the powerless and crumpled angel sits dejectedly. Surrounded by the debris of geometric shapes and builder’s tools, unable to reach the serenity and beauty of the vibrant sacred vision across the water in the distance, she is a noble and robust figure. I respect her and feel for her. She reminds me that for over 500 years the West has known that rational thought and materialism cannot get us across the abyss. Something else is needed. Dürer hints that what is needed is a transcendent vision that encompasses but goes beyond the workings of even the most creative of minds.
Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing?
I am learning music on the guitar. For the first year I entertained myself playing the standard chord progressions that underlie a host of popular music. But now I am learning something of the structure of music: note collections, key signatures and modes, scales and rhythm. Everything seems to be about patterns. I am fascinated by the flexibility of a few notes ordered into patterns with basic rhythms. Humans have created an infinity of musical sounds from these simple elements. But even more interesting and amazing is that such patterned sequences of musical notes can evoke nuanced feelings and experiences in listeners. You play along while singing a song like the Avett Brothers’ No Hard Feelings and you are immediately grappling with death and meaning and forgiveness. It’s not just the lyrics; the words are enflamed and brought to life by the music. You only need 6 chords: C, Am, Em, F, E and G7. The fact that intentionally ordered tones can communicate complex inner personal experience astonishes and thrills me. How does that happen?
What piece of clothing tells the most interesting story about your life?
My Heavy Hitters t-shirt! At the gym where I learned Muay Thai our coach created the Heavy Hitter Squad, a group of us who trained in sparring together with coach Jake. I was never an athlete; it was kind of an accident that I got into it. And being over 60 and lazy, I had no reason to hope I could do it. All I had was Jake and the willingness to try. But that combination was a success! I learned all the moves and developed all the muscles and cardio capacity, and coaching kept me going. The interesting thing is that a couple years later, my sister’s blood cancer brought her to the brink of death. Only a complete stem cell replacement could save her. And only because I had transformed my body through kickboxing was I fit and ready to donate. The feeling that I had been directed or carried by a hidden power was so strong that I felt compelled to tell the story in my book, Rootlines. My Heavy Hitters shirt is a symbol for the mysterious miracles that worked in our lives to bring the healing we really needed.
What brings you great joy?
When there are signs that humanity might be able to move in the right direction to save ourselves. The election of Barack Obama. Progress on climate change. The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. The prospect of grandchildren in a few years. Reconciliation and forgiveness.
When my family and friends break through obstacles to achieve something they care about. When my daughter completed graduate school. And of course, the time my heart sang all day -- my daughter’s wedding to a fine man.
Seeing the wildlife around my home in Santa Fe: birds, snakes, lizards, rabbits, jackrabbits and coyotes all play outside my office window.
Spotting the planets in the night sky, especially Jupiter. It gives me a great feeling of order and calm to know the universe is functioning well. Jupiter is holding us in orbit and protecting us from the asteroids in the asteroid belt. Everything is going just fine.
