Estes Park, Colorado is one of my favorite places. On the surface this probably sounds fantastic coming from a guy like me. After all, Estes Park is one classic “taffy town.” You know those taffy towns because they have more ice cream and taffy shops than seem possible, with one of these installed every block, sometime two to a block. Estes Park is at the gates to Rocky Mountain National Park and the Stanley Hotel is there too. It's overrun by tourists all summer long and it has the proper amount of hotels, motels, resorts and the amusements to support it.
Why do I like it? Good question. I think the best part of the place is the way the light looks. It doesn't look like Colorado to me. During the day, and it doesn't matter what time of day, it looks like it's mid-morning. The light is soft, which is unlike the rest of Colorado where the light is searing and white. Remember when you were a kid drawing your house with crayons, the little peaked house with the chimney and smoke? Was the sun you drew yellow? If it was, you do not come from Colorado. Our sun is white, very white and the light it produces is also very white. The exceptions to this are during overcast days and days of wildfires. I don't know why the light is the way it is in Estes Park, it could be from the geography, who knows? But it's what I like about the place.
The two times
of year I like to visit are at the height of summer when it's
unbearably hot down here and the air in Estes Park is significantly
cooler. And I like the late winter. See, Estes Park is a summer town
which means it's dead in the winter. Many of the shops close for the
winter. But as the winter comes to an end, the workers and people of
Estes Park have not been run down by tourists yet. I find them to be
very pleasant. And the taffy is always good.
Estes Park is also known for the elk population. Elk is a massive animal. They have the run of the town and they go wherever they want to go. It's menacing to see a single elk, but when they travel in the herds that they do, they can do or be wherever they want.
I have no problem waiting for them to do their thing. I also assume that any elk, much like any animal I see, is a female and I assume she has babies. In short, don't fuck with the wildlife. Plus when you see them, you might even get hear them bugle, which is something worth hearing.
We had gone to Estes Park over the weekend. We had dinner and a movie while the late winter snow was coming down like rain. Later, we sat in a hot tub and talked about things, made assumptions about life, talked about a better world.
I really don't know what a better world would look like. It would be an end to war, the one in Ukraine, the one in Sudan, for starters. I have a tremendous preoccupation with war. I think it's because I participated in war in my youth and any time war breaks out anywhere, I relive my war and my trauma all over again. That, and I believe with my whole being that no one deserves war. I also believe that people who like war are generally those who have never been to war. I know we can't always have peace, it isn't in our nature, but wouldn't it be great if it was?
In the hot tub, watching the small moon fall behind the lighted hotel sign on HWY 34, I wondered if there was some sort of small act we could all do to prevent war. Like what if the whole population of Earth could just engage in a little Kaizen and eventually we would stop these atrocities against each other.
Janice was saying something about recent changes in laws in some states that prevents people who work in Higher Education from saying certain things. For instance, in some places using the word diversity can get someone fired. Now, I have to tell you that Janice works in higher education and so these things are on her mind. And I have been a consumer of higher education for much of my adult life, so I just don't get it. If you can't say words like diversity in higher ed, then where can you say them?
The thought occurred to me that the problem lies within those who don't want to have other views shared, whether it's in school, higher ed or the world at large. This has got to be dangerous, right? When I think of diversity, sure, I think about all the colors of people. I think of all the people who pursue higher education, and they are pretty much everyone. I cannot see why any one person or group should be challenged as not being a part of anything. Again, I am an idealist. Being an idealist has created more problems for me than not.
Why are some of us more concerned that there are people who are different who exist? Why would we want to put down and marginalize a person because they have a different gender, or a fluid gender? Why would we want to suppress minorities with this notion that they are less American than the rest of us? It makes no sense. It makes no sense to me when I think about the war and persecution that goes on in the rest of the world. This is America. This is America, we are the beacon on the hill. We vowed, centuries ago to be better than that. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. What's going on?
We ended our soak in the tub, our wet feet met with the ice on the ground. I felt relaxed and happy. I felt like things may never be perfect, but that things are going to be okay. After all, I'm of the Hobbes school I believe people are inherently good.
In the morning, which had the daylight that looked like morning, we went for a walk. Everyone we met on our journey was friendly and cheerful. After all, it was a warm and sunny morning in Estes Park and it had been snowing the day before.
When it came time to leave, we drove slowly through town. We got onto HWY 36 leaving Estes Park behind us. The sunlight on the lake and the wind that made ripples on the surface was nothing short of inspiring. The mountains all around looked like a Albert Bierstadt conception. As we climbed the hill in a long line of cars making our way back to the lowlands, I reminded Janice of the animals.
I saw the elks before she did. The cars in front of us, two or three of them, had seen them too. The cars coming into Estes Park saw them too. Suddenly we were all stopped and the Elks, a good two dozen of them meandered slowly from one side of the highway to the other.
I notice even in our town that people stop for the wildlife. We have so much water in our town, lakes and rivers, that we have more geese than I think should be in Colorado. When the geese wander on the sides of the streets in town, all of us are on high alert. When they start to cross the street, we wait. I love that when I see people in their cars waiting on the geese, everyone smiles. The smiles are especially big when the geese have goslings. After, assume any animal you meet is female and that she has babies.
We were stopped for elk, not geese. A full grown elk can weigh 1100 pounds, which is half the weight of the car we were in. It wouldn't be a pretty site for either party if a collision occurred. So, we waited. The elk were slowly crossing the street in single file, in the opening that both lanes of traffic provided.
Then we heard the horn. Then we saw a car going in our direction of travel but in the opposing lane of traffic speed around us. The driver of this car recklessly drove through the herd of elk. This was not only dangerous, but it was disruptive. The impatience of this driver caused confusion in the elk and further delayed their journey across the street. The driver made it through, but it caused an even longer delay for the rest of us.
Then, the night's conversation came back to me. Is there always one person whose impatience and selfishness cause problems for the rest of us and danger to other unsuspecting animals? When I talk about a little Kaizen, a small change like simply waiting for nature to pass, would make things better for all of us.
I wish I had compassion for the impatient driver. Who knows, maybe there was a life and death situation in that car. I somehow doubt it. I rather wish the person in that car had a little compassion for the wildlife of Estes Park and the people who were trying to do the right thing along HWY 36.
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