Hiking with Jim Carrey

I was working at an expensive, New Age spiritual resort, that often-had celebrity guests. Jim Carrey was one of those guests.

I held many jobs at the resort. I worked in the kitchen as a cook. I was the bonfire storyteller twice a week, telling the tourists tall tales of the American southwest. I was a mountain bike instructor and a hiking guide.

One of the other guides took Jim Carrey out on a private hike and when they returned, Jim Carrey expressed his displeasure. Mr. Carrey complained that the other guide talked too much. He wanted to see something special. The hiking department gave him to me.

We met the next morning for breakfast. There were four of us, myself, Jim Carrey, Joe Macdonald who worked in the special programs department, and a Sioux friend named James. We were hiking to a petroglyph site that I believed may have been used for ceremonies and I felt it was important to have a Native American with us on the hike.

During breakfast I told a story about attending the Easter celebrations conducted by the Yaqui tribe in the Pascua barrio of Tucson. The highlight of the ceremony comes at sunrise when little girls with bows in their hair and Sunday dresses battle armies of demons. The little girls are armed for this apocalyptic fight with sacks full of flower petals. I timed the telling of my tale so that I finished…