The rooftop is cold and inhospitable in the wind and stinging rain, but I grip my Titan and can’t help but smile as I watch the storm front roll in off of the front range into the city.
“That’s what I love about Colorado,” Adam says, ” it never forgets to remind you how wild it is.”
Although Wash Park is now home to tens of thousands of hipsters, yuppies, and stay-at-home moms, this was once the land of the Arapaho. It was once the land of gold prospectors making the three day’s journey to Central City and Black Hawk up Clear Creek Canyon – although I make this drive in 40 mintues flat every day and the mines have long since closed, ambitious (or perhaps delusional) gold “sluicers” still attempt to pull what’s left of the dust from the creekbed today (one reported to me that a full day’s sluicing is usually rewarded by about $50 in gold – thats about a paper clip’s worth). Sure, every place in our country has its history, but Colorado seems incapable of hiding its feral past.
I still find myself hesitantly looking over my shoulder when I hear a sound in the brush while fly fishing in the stream running through Lair of the Bear, pondering for a moment why it is that the place was given its name. The idea that I could be killed by a snake while walking barefoot in my mother-in-law’s back yard sometimes gives me pause. A wrong move on Floyd Hill going to work in the morning could send me careening down a mountain ravine that would make Gabe Walker blush (go ahead and Google that one, don’t be embarrased).
God did not intend for certain parts of His creation to be tamed by humans – and although we’ve done our best to tame Colorado, it’s clear that we still haven’t managed. This is a land that attracts people from all over the world – they come to live here not for the great job prospects, the vibrant city life, or the fantastic standards of living. No, they come because there is something about waking up under the Rocky Mountains that makes one feel that they are still living in the wild west.
Sometimes, tragic events around the world, or even right here in our city, challenge the idea that God is good, or even that He exists. Colorado is one of those places that with one looks west, it’s hard not to be convinced. As a great Colorado lover once said, ” You can talk to God and listen to the casual reply.”
Yes John, I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky too.
