Solace at Cripple Creek

I was talking to a guy recently, a really nice guy, who is a land developer.  At this point I didn’t know he was a land developer, so when he told me he was waiting for a job to come through I asked what sort of work he did.  He said, “Well, you’re not going to like this…”  He builds apartments and condos — high density kind of stuff.  And despite his warning, I found that I wasn’t bothered by his line of work.  I love living the way we do, and I love living where we do.  I have lived in high-density settings.  When we were married, our first apartment was beneath the apartment of three friendly-but-carefree Swedish college men, all of whom were over 6′ 5″ and all of whom walked like they had immense concrete blocks strapped to the soles of their feet (when they weren’t dancing to loud Swedish techno music like they had immense concrete blocks strapped to the soles of their feet).  And the people in the apartment below us would leave home with their stereo blasting children’s music, apparently set to repeat.  We never figured out if they actually left their baby there too.  My point is that I generally didn’t love living so close to so many people.  BUT… I’m really glad that so many people do live that way, because I don’t want them all crowding into my lovely space out here in the country.  The fact is that an even distribution of people throughout the available space would diminish the quality of life of those of us who are living La Vida Pura.  So I told the nice land developer that I have no issue with him building his apartments and condos — all those people need someplace to live and, like any transplanted hypocrite, now that I’ve found this great place I don’t want anyone else to come here.

On to food.  The other day I was picking up some feed at the milling store, and got in a conversation with one of the employees who scoffs at the idea of organic food.  “Hell, it’s all organic.  Hell, you’re organic.  You’re made of carbon and I guarantee you’ll rot when you die.  What do you think organic means?”  Again, I need to preface this by saying that this is a great guy.  I love talking to the people there because they are so knowledgeable and friendly.  This guy was telling me about some people wanting organic corn, and what it would take for him to supply it for them.  Separate storage, cleaning milling equipment and trucks specially between dealing with their corn and all the rest of their corn, worries about pest infestations because they weren’t treated with insecticides, etc.  Basically, big hassle.  The point he wanted to make to me was that we all grew up on GM corn.  They started experimenting with it in the 1930′s, and it’s what allows American farmers to feed the number of people that they do.  Which got me to thinking.  I don’t want my family eating that stuff.  We try to raise as much of our own food as we can, and we try to be very selective about what we buy, and I think it’s the right and natural way to live.  But, as long as there are tens of millions of people crowded into southern California, it is going to require some industrial agriculture to supply their food.  I want space to grow my healthy food, and I want plenty of deer and few hunters so we can have some venison.  I want us to live this good, healthy life, but I recognize that everyone can’t live this way, and I’m okay with that.  I’d rather there not be too many people out here trying, because they might get in my way.

So here’s my dilemma: I want to be a good person, and I generally think I am.  I want to see others living happy and healthy lives, like we are.  We’ve got our place in the sun, we’re living pretty close to the land, getting closer every year, and really feeling like a part of the natural world (as opposed to the virtual world of economics and fashion).  I want others to experience this too, but I don’t want them here.  So if you’re reading this post (statistically unlikely) and you’re thinking about moving out to the country and getting back to nature, I shout a hearty “Huzzah!” for you and encourage you to do so.  Somewhere else.

Cripple Creek is a great place to visit, but I doubt you'd like living here.