I was longing for fresh air, space, comfort and peace; and I found it in Colorado. ❣️ We found our new (temporary) home in a little place called Wildernest in Silverthorne, about an hour and a half out of Denver, quite centrally positioned between Vail and Breckenridge. and it. is. beautiful.
Perhaps the best thing about the whole setup is that we still get to work East Coast time. Which means watching the sunrise over the mountain peaks in the morning, wrapping up work at 3pm and spending the rest of the afternoon roaming around in the wilderness; and there hasn’t been a single day where we’ve missed a hike. It is such a joy to be able to walk outside, breathe in fresh air that smells sweet from the pine trees, stretch your legs and not have the fear of running into a million other people on the street.
Being out of the city has also given me amazing perspective. I’ve referenced this before – but when you live abroad, there are certain situations that really amplify that you are living in a foreign land. Nowhere do I feel this the strongest, than when talking i’m talking with my friends and colleagues about the current state of the USA.
From a privileged perspective, along with a wonderful childhood, best education and every opportunity under the sun (plus more) it’s obvious that the state of the country is just so far beyond a quick fix & change of government… so it baffles me as to why people can’t recognize America’s truth right now, and how it’s even possible to think things are Okay. The ugly truth is, that if we want too, we can choose to keep living in our own headspace, our own protected bubble and conveniently opt out of the issues riddling this country.
So lets gather some of the facts and statistics on the current climate of the USA:
- 170,000 American lives lost (prematurely), and counting
- Letter boxes are being removed, the USPS is at risk of going out of business and democracy is about to crumble
- There is a current coin shortage
- There are no concerts, theatre, broadway, sports events etc
- No paper towels, cleaning products or frozen food
- Kids can’t go to school
- $3T deficit in this last year alone
- Food lines exist for miles. Millions of Americans, can’t afford to feed their families.
- Currently there are 30 million Americans unemployed & unemployment rate has tripled
- There is massive civil unrest
- Crime has been spiking all over major capital cities
These are the facts. This is America’s reality. But it’s not the reality of so many Americans and the disconnect is perplexing. So how can one set of statistics create such jarring perspectives? From my perspective, it looks like it simply just comes down to privilege. The concept of privilege and how it impacts your perception is something i’ve been dwelling on for a while now…and i’ve been wanting to write about it. But the brain has been in overdrive lately with everything going on… a constant stream of thoughts, opinions and comments around the election, politics, basic human rights, covid, the economy, protests….and ever time i’ve sat down to write it’s often just resulted in just staring at the screen wondering where to start. So we’ll leave that one for another post.
