So glad to have a life outside Estes Park
"I'm an optimist, brought up on the belief that if you wait to the end of the story, you get to see the good people live happily every after" - Cat Stevens (born Steven Georgiou, 1948)
I moved to Estes Park "permanently" a decade ago at 42 years of age, and no matter what you thought about me back then, you had to acknowledge I arrived full of energy, passionate about causes I advocated for and believed in. It is one thing to be passionate about fringe beliefs, and as I've repeatedly acknowledged, if I was passionate about demanding the shelves at the Estes Valley Library be stocked with Nazi literature, or sex toys, I could understand the pushback. But at the time of my arrival, seeing the decrepit state of assembling and preserving Estes Park newspapers for future generations (or pretty much any ephemera related to Estes Park history) and the seeming unwillingness to make what had been haphazardly saved of this material available to the public (and not just at the library, but everywhere in Estes Park that ever had a stake in recording "news", even if this meant the new telephone book, or preserving history), I was, and still am, passionate about attempting to assemble the best possible local history collection, and digitizing it so that future generations will be able to easily research material unavailable to me upon my arrival.
The library director was obviously not on board to the same degree, and because of this, I was "blamed" for making both director and reference staff uncomfortable about how they approached their work, earned their salaries, whatever, and their approach to how "complaints" were being handled, or in this case, ignored (or in this case, imagined away, as if the person making them did not exist, or could be dismissed to the point where it was as if they didn't exist). They obviously had a passion for something else besides local history, and in a small town (Estes Park loves to reduce itself to a small town whenever someone with more reference points suggests it is not behaving as a town of 6000+ residents should), if an outsider has anything besides flowery compliments for any institution or undertaking or activity, these people are marginalized and treated as odd.
Again, because I am an adult, and have encountered similar behaviors in other settings where ultimately more rational heads prevailed, this didn't phase me, or cow me into silence. Walt Disney said a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you. Imagine, Walt Disney, the man responsible for a world where kicks in the teeth are not allowed, where feet never connect with teeth, or teeth are kernels of corn spit from the mouth to banjo accompaniment where they do. It is okay to pretend to the tourists we live in Disneyland, but we should recognize the hypocrisy of behaving behind the scenes as if we actually do.
Here is my feeling, as a former athlete, and, sorry to my detractors, but actually a pretty good one, enduring seasons both good and not so good, about a team being called "soft": It is not a compliment. Yet we now have directors in most, if not all, positions in Estes Park who either were never serious athletes or serious scholars, or, if they were, never had to face criticism or adversity, never had to question whether they were doing the correct thing based on objective measures of success.
And so I am so lucky, unlike others who have been treated the same way, to enjoy a life outside Estes Park, among coevals who actually do strive for improvement and raising all boats rather than self-protection, that I don't have to ever worry about being so marginalized by Estes Park and her "leaders", dismissed as powerless even where I am obviously right, or it is obvious to a rational, impartial observer that I cannot be as wrong as the chalk outline painted around me, it becomes unnecessary to move away, since I have already been "disappeared" in place.
Ultimately, justice prevails, right prevails, knowledge and actual conceptualizations of reality replace ignorance. Perhaps not in my lifetime, or at this particular latitude and longitude, but, if you believe history should be saved rather than thrown away, hold on, because, as Sophocles reminds us, wise thinkers prevail everywhere. And if we are still quoting Sophocles 2500 years later, or at least still acknowledging that he is worthy of being quoted, even non-believes must accept the inevitability of this truth.
I moved to Estes Park "permanently" a decade ago at 42 years of age, and no matter what you thought about me back then, you had to acknowledge I arrived full of energy, passionate about causes I advocated for and believed in. It is one thing to be passionate about fringe beliefs, and as I've repeatedly acknowledged, if I was passionate about demanding the shelves at the Estes Valley Library be stocked with Nazi literature, or sex toys, I could understand the pushback. But at the time of my arrival, seeing the decrepit state of assembling and preserving Estes Park newspapers for future generations (or pretty much any ephemera related to Estes Park history) and the seeming unwillingness to make what had been haphazardly saved of this material available to the public (and not just at the library, but everywhere in Estes Park that ever had a stake in recording "news", even if this meant the new telephone book, or preserving history), I was, and still am, passionate about attempting to assemble the best possible local history collection, and digitizing it so that future generations will be able to easily research material unavailable to me upon my arrival.
The library director was obviously not on board to the same degree, and because of this, I was "blamed" for making both director and reference staff uncomfortable about how they approached their work, earned their salaries, whatever, and their approach to how "complaints" were being handled, or in this case, ignored (or in this case, imagined away, as if the person making them did not exist, or could be dismissed to the point where it was as if they didn't exist). They obviously had a passion for something else besides local history, and in a small town (Estes Park loves to reduce itself to a small town whenever someone with more reference points suggests it is not behaving as a town of 6000+ residents should), if an outsider has anything besides flowery compliments for any institution or undertaking or activity, these people are marginalized and treated as odd.
Again, because I am an adult, and have encountered similar behaviors in other settings where ultimately more rational heads prevailed, this didn't phase me, or cow me into silence. Walt Disney said a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you. Imagine, Walt Disney, the man responsible for a world where kicks in the teeth are not allowed, where feet never connect with teeth, or teeth are kernels of corn spit from the mouth to banjo accompaniment where they do. It is okay to pretend to the tourists we live in Disneyland, but we should recognize the hypocrisy of behaving behind the scenes as if we actually do.
Here is my feeling, as a former athlete, and, sorry to my detractors, but actually a pretty good one, enduring seasons both good and not so good, about a team being called "soft": It is not a compliment. Yet we now have directors in most, if not all, positions in Estes Park who either were never serious athletes or serious scholars, or, if they were, never had to face criticism or adversity, never had to question whether they were doing the correct thing based on objective measures of success.
And so I am so lucky, unlike others who have been treated the same way, to enjoy a life outside Estes Park, among coevals who actually do strive for improvement and raising all boats rather than self-protection, that I don't have to ever worry about being so marginalized by Estes Park and her "leaders", dismissed as powerless even where I am obviously right, or it is obvious to a rational, impartial observer that I cannot be as wrong as the chalk outline painted around me, it becomes unnecessary to move away, since I have already been "disappeared" in place.
Ultimately, justice prevails, right prevails, knowledge and actual conceptualizations of reality replace ignorance. Perhaps not in my lifetime, or at this particular latitude and longitude, but, if you believe history should be saved rather than thrown away, hold on, because, as Sophocles reminds us, wise thinkers prevail everywhere. And if we are still quoting Sophocles 2500 years later, or at least still acknowledging that he is worthy of being quoted, even non-believes must accept the inevitability of this truth.
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