On Christmas Day I took a nice long walk down Cemetery Road and
into downtown. The sky was grey, the air
chilled and occasionally a few snow flakes would fall. The streets and the sidewalks were freshly
plowed and shoveled but all was covered with a thin layer of snow not burned
off by a hidden sun.
It was an exceptional time to walk downtown early
afternoon. Very few vehicles drove by on
the highway. No one else was seen
walking about. The hot springs was open for business and, maybe,
also the bakery. But otherwise my walk
was a unique opportunity to walk downtown into a quiet Pagosa Springs that was,
in a sense, all mine to enjoy alone.
My walk was unique in another important way. Having lived in California for the past two years with only
the infrequent visit back, I had for the first time a unique experience of
Pagosa Springs. This was the first time
that I wanted nothing from the Town and the place. I had no expectations, no desires, and no
ambition.
I read recently that the highest state that a man can reach
in life is to want nothing at all and, then, to succeed in getting it.
Since my first visit in 2005 and subsequent quick move into
Town, I was a man on a mission. Several
missions actually. Fresh from divorce, I
was seeking primarily an escape from the large city that was intimately the
setting for the long marriage and the person I had become. Secondly, although I had done fairly well
fixing and flipping old houses in the big city, I couldn’t resist hoping that I
could double my earnings in a quick in and out move at the tail end of the
largest real estate bubble in my lifetime.
I knew the bubble would burst but maybe there was time for one more quick
ride upward. And, what better place for
a fresh start than in this magical little town at the foot of the mountains.
The little town that I walked into in 2005 was a “boom town
on the verge of exploding”. Serious real
estate investors were here. Serious
money was moving around. Lots of talk
and possibilities floated around.
So the Pagosa Springs that I “saw” in 2005 was a place for
my own redemption from another life. A
place where I could “prove myself” yet again.
A place where I could be a real player in a town, I thought, would be
wanting to redefine itself and grow anew. A place where I could be a true mountain man.
Pagosa Springs would be my escape from the big city and a place where I could
achieve my dreams. Not only could I
transform my own life but I could be an integral part of a community
transformation.
Ambition is a strange driving force; or should I say
blinding force.
But, on this Christmas Day walk, my ambition was gone. My needs for what Pagosa Springs would
provide me had dissipated. My dreams for
being an intimate part of a small town wanting to create itself anew had been
let go.
In other words, for the first time, I was seeing Pagosa
Springs for what it really is; not for what I wanted it to be.
I imagine that almost all of us, even the rare enlightened
individual, have some sort of ambition.
Maybe that is the difference between being alive and dying. It is ambition that keeps us going – waking
up early, going to work, doing the things daily that we do. Ambition to be a good parent, an outdoors
athlete, a recluse, a multi-millionaire, or simply to be at peace.
I can see that the conflicts that have arisen between people
in my time here in Archuleta
County have their roots
in differences in ambition. In 2005, I
was excited, for example, by the ambition of David Brown for his properties
downtown. I mistook the swirl of talk
and high ideas of people like David Brown for the place that I was moving
to. I saw a possibility of an emerging
pedestrian-oriented downtown attracting new young families and fresh energy. In
2005, there were dozens of investors, developers and the small army of business
people that become the entourage of a real estate boom.
But, on this Christmas Day walk, I was seeing Pagosa Springs
for what it really is; not for what I hoped that it would be.
Today, almost none of the investors or developers who
inspired me remain in town any longer.
The small army of associated business people has been reduced to a skeleton
crew. Money had been made. And money had been lost. Had I benefitted from the wisdom of, say, 30
years in Pagosa Springs, I might have known that this cycle of boom and bust is
the heartbeat of the land. I might have
known that the sleepy little town I now saw this Christmas Day was what Pagosa
really is. The “boom town on the verge
of exploding” was an illusion; the imploding economy was the historical
pattern.
The mix of older houses, vacant lots, small businesses, the
hot springs, scattered new buildings, plentiful vacant buildings and limited
employment opportunities represent, really, the “ambition” of the Town’s dominant
vision for, say, the past 30 years. If
you stop to look, the existing downtown tells the tale of what this Town is
really up to. Everything else is empty
talk and wild speculation.
I could criticize this “vision”. In fact, at times, I have criticized. But the truth is that the criticism would be only
the “conflict” between my short-lived ambition up against the slow ebb and flow
of an older, better established, ambition.
Neither “ambition” is right or wrong.
Just different. The heartbeat of a
town on the verge of growing and then again staying much the same is the true
pulse of this place.
Of course, I don’t know how far this town has or has not
journeyed in the past 30 years. I have
more than a passing interest in the arc of transformation that can occur in a
man’s life; what could be called the “hero’s journey”. Communities, as a whole, can also transform
and grow. Or shrink. After all, the only constant is change.
Now that I am unattached, un-invested, and totally without
ambition for the Town or for myself in this Town I can, possibly, see it for
what it really is. And for that I am
grateful. In no small part, the charm of
this place is that of a Town lost in time.
A Town unaffected by the ambitions of the big city. A place where you can come to escape.
This is a different kind of place for different kinds of
people. There are people who have lived
here for generations. There are tourists
who come for a few days or a week. There
are second home owners who stay a few weeks or a few months every year. There are people like me who fall in love,
move in for a time, and then eventually move on again. Each of these groups of people have very
different types of ambition. The
tourists are looking to be entertained and escape for a short time. Some of the other groups of people are
looking for solitude and escape in their own ways. The locals who have lived here “forever” have
an ambition and drive that, really, I know nothing about.
I think that it is accurate to say that the downtown as
currently built and currently operated says as much about the true Pagosa
Springs ambition as I might ever come to know.
The place that I saw Christmas Day is exactly what it is and exactly
what it intends to be.
And for that, I am grateful.