Money Money Money letter to the editor

There are first world problems and then there are Aspen problems... we fall into a category unto ourselves. 

 In response to Mick's editorial: Why spread the blame so thin? The wealth divide is not new to Aspen it is as old as the town itself. 

The American dream is money. 

How much money do we need?

 Would more money for everyone cure this? Is it time for a billionaire's tax on the second, third, fourteenth home? Our $140,000,000 City budget for 7000 residents has not stitched up the wealth wound. If anything the spiderweb of budgetary choices at City Council meetings has grown more tendrils while staunchly guarding the prime directive of bureaucratic self preservation. It's a donkey carrot always out of reach. With all our wealth, all our leverage, all our good intentions, all our privilege, many still feel cheated. When the weight gets too much, when the alcohol or the cocaine won't scratch the itch of have and have not, when the mountain is not enough ... many make an irreversible choice. Suicides are far too frequent in "paradise".

 I'm often asked by visitors what has changed since I moved here in 1968. 

 "Vanity". 

 People used to come here so they would not be seen. You could sit at the Jerome bar and be sitting next to a rancher sitting next to a movie star, next to a cabinet minister, next to a taxi driver, next to a Nobel prize winner, next to a busboy. Nobody asked for autographs in the check out line at Tom's Market. Now people come here to be seen. They brag about who they saw coming out the doors of the Nell or who was sprayed with Veuve at Cloud 9. 

 We have become the fishbowl. 

 How much money does the fishbowl need? I could list the differences between 1968 and 2022 from the size of City Government to the size of that Cabin in the Woods, to the gobsmacking Gorsuch Doronin deal but "more" sums it up. It is human nature to always want "more". I think the only thing which hasn't increased in that time is the hourly wage (*arguably an unintended consequence of APCHA combined with Reagonomics in the candy cane spiral of "Social Good" waltzing with the event horizon of "Greed is Good"- but I digress). 

 More is never enough. 

 We have gerrymandered answers through the ages... and so far "I want I want I want" is still the mantra of our species. It is both our greatness and our curse. Arguably Social Justice and Corporate Greed spring from that same "I want more"well. Evolution has rewarded "I want more". Is there an answer to subdue the "I/We want more" drum beat? Spirituality? Altruism? (personal favorite) Stoicism? I don't know; but maybe it's time for us all to start the hard work of "enough is enough" 

After all, there are plenty of places on the planet where people would kill to have Aspen's problems.

Aspen perceived

Rant Warning:

I love my home town but sometimes I just want to slap it upside the head. We have tempest in a tortoise shell as our current cause de jour , we have a $70 million dollar free museum without a permanent collection, a mad moose on the loose up at Maroon Lake, the City Council has decided that the free market is bad for everything except pot, the local paper has gotten letters complaining about too many porta potties  (complain about too few before you complain about too many I say) and our current Mayor was afraid that choosing a Council Member with a roll of the dice would have made us look silly- yeah *that* would have made us look silly.

Lodging, development, building, transit, density, we teeter on the edge of the abyss.

 Our souls are in the balance. We are doomed, doomed, doomed.

It's a problem of perception.

1887

2009

America has been a place of reinvention since the first boatload. The Wild West welcomes newcomers with a ubiquitous "don't care what you did before, what ya gonna do here?" The tales told could be as dark as Conrad or as subtle as de Maupassant.

Re-invention? We've made a meal of it.

A big fat banquet.

… and we Aspenites have a rose colored utopian view of ourselves as hearty mountain folk who climb, ski, bike and support all the moral, environmental, humanitarian causes on the planet.

Others see us as ungrateful posers who have won the lottery and can only squander the profits.

What is this relationship of Aspen and Money?

Let's reframe the conversation.

Let's start with a good long look in the mirror.

A whole generation pulled Aspen out of poverty after WWII.  It is we who have welcomed the money, we chopped down trees for the money, we mowed ski runs for the money, we built hotels for the money, we paved streets for the money, we built runways for money, we courted money, we won money, we're in bed with money.

Want a divorce? I didn't think so… at least not without the property tax, the sales tax, the real estate transfer tax and custody of Prius.

Are we  spinning Gold into Good ?

Or...

are we delusional?

Money isn't character.

How you make it, what you do with it, how you treat others… that's character. 

(Confused? Read Trollope)

Now, let's try evaluating all those problems with a dispassionate eye. 

The formula is simple. It's difficult, but simple. 

You start with a realistic evaluation of the present.

Then think of the outcome you want.
(Please make it a positive outcome.)

Don't try and over think a solution.
Don't place blame.
Don't punish.

There can be simple solutions to complex problems.

Perception is everything.

End of rant.

The Time of your Life

Linda and I went to school together, so of course I read her blog and she's got a post up there now which is taking off like a rocket.

The Doughnut Post

That's certainly been my philosophy for life-  no money- no workie - but my deeply held beliefs keep wobbling around  like  slow moving  squishy water balloons in the Marianus Trench.

How do you get paid?

I'm reminded of a talk by Bev Emmons when she was asked that ubiquitous question which all working women are asked, "How do you balance being a mother and a professional?" Her response was classic.  She said being a mother and a Lighting Designer teaches 2 things: 1. You always ask for a fair wage because the kids need to eat. 2. You can always recognize when your director is acting like a 2 year old. 

No, really, how do you get paid? Honestly I'd love to just do fun things the rest of my life, listen to marvelous lectures by super smart people, ski fresh powder, walk dogs through wildflowers . feast with friends and (a la Voltaire) watch my garden grow. All of that *would not make me happy* because it doesn't include *work* it doesn't include purpose.  If you don't need to work for money you need to work for sanity. Try idleness for awhile. See where it leads you. We are creatures of curiosity. We are creatures who find and solve problems. It's what we do. The trick is where you spend your most precious asset. Where do you spend your time? Ultimately that is where you've spent your life it is your work, it is your legacy.

The one thing which I do not do, nor should anyone else, is wait for opportunity to come knocking.  

That doesn't mean an orgy of extroversion or shameless self promotion. That was the mantra when I was in school- push forward! self promote! That always seemed so uncomfortable because I had been taught to let the work speak for itself.  Now with social media and crowd funding the work can speak for itself.  Just do the work, client or no, paid or no. It's the first rule of kayaking, keep paddling.   If the work doesn't have anything interesting to say… well then silence is pretty powerful feedback (hey- you- you got it wrong! Try again, try something else.) If people keep offering you **** jobs… well that's feedback too (sour attitude attracts sour clients, like finds like).

I haven't found a better expression of this than Amanda Palmer's TED talk

How do you get paid? If no one is willing to kickstart your movie or you're too intimidated to ask for pay, you might be in the wrong business, you might need to get a job frying doughnuts. That's not a step backward, that's a step towards finding your true self you'll either find the courage to push out of the fryer or you'll find the zen of frying (the 3rd option of dying old, greasy and bitter is just too banal to contemplate). 

Do the work that's true, and respect the work of others (even if they're frying doughnuts). All work is sacred and deserves respect.  

Dirty Jobs

Sometimes you just have to pop the balloon.