Telluride

So we are walking around Telluride, what once was a cool little hippie/ski bum town that is now ruined by rich people. They have a “free box” for which locals and others may leave clothing, shoes and such that is better used by someone else. Well, these two ladies roll up in a new Volvo and start perusing the freebox, not making a donation but making a shopping visit. Walking past and watching this kind of made me angry, why in hell were these women looking for used stuff? Were they having trouble making that car payment? Were they worried how they were going to furnish that fourth home they just bought? I hate the rich, not because they have and I don’t, but because of the conspicuous consumption of most. Looking around this valley and seeing the 6000+ square foot homes that maybe see a weeks worth of use a year and the resources squandered to make them puts me off. I wish that they could make do with a cabin on 3 acres and allow others to do the same. Solitude can be found, but why look for it within the confines of your cavernous “mountain home” you get to once a year. Look in the woods on the peaks in the meadows that are still estate free. Instead what were once cool wildflower-filled meadows are dotted with McMansions with forced Kentucky Bluegrass that uses too much water, requiring mowing that uses too much gas, paying itinerant workers too little to do the groundskeeping. Sustainable? I think not. Eat the rich, a new view on Jonathan Swift’s solution to the famine in the UK centuries ago, instead of eating the children as Swift proposed, lets eat the rich. More later