As we approach our second year of living in Aspen, I'm not sure it's become any more "normal." It truly is a bubble, one that warps your perspective of so much of the outside world. What is a reasonable price to pay for anything? What does an "average" person look like, how does most of the world live? And, what's legal, what's not?
As I sit at this cafe drinking my coffee, the coffee shop just down from me has a double sided sign which reads: side 1: put some pep in your Prada wearing step. side 2: Coffee the second most preferred stimulant in Aspen. What is number 1 you might wonder.... cocaine. Not that it's legal here, but there is a blind eye turned to it, it is a glamorous drug after all. Not too many poor people adopt it as habit. We live in a state that has now made marijuana legal (which I fully agree with, make it legal, tax it and make a profit... people who are high are just getting fat, and being lazy, they aren't really hurting anyone). There are no open container laws, you can even have it on a bus, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who is overweight, poor, uneducated, much ethnicity (96.1% white as of 2012), or decently well travelled. The majority of the people here eat only organic, locally sourced food if not vegetarian or vegan, are democratic for the most part (during the last presidential election the republican headquarters was egged twice by young "unruly" locals). People don't lock their doors, tend to trust everyone, let their dogs roam free and party hard. We have festivals for everything, each season brings it's own annual traditions, it is truly the biggest small town you will find. Some how we have moved to some weird little blip in America.
It's all fine for a bit, though I don't want Henry growing up not knowing there is more out there, not knowing that there is pain and suffering, people who struggle to purchase food to feed their family, people of other colours and religions, different ways of thinking living and behaving. He has to see the absolute wonderful beauty in diversity and the differences in people. We plan to travel, and often if we do stay here well into his teenage years, push him to experience the broader world, and understand that all of this is not "normal."
We also live in a county that has alarmingly high suicide rates. It is often said that if you can't be happy here, you can' the happy anywhere. Though there is so much pressure here to be so much, and there truly is a great divide between the locals, the semi-locals and the visitors, even the visitors at different times of the year. Living here I know when the prices drop on the hotel stays, that is when people come to see Aspen, who couldn't afford to in the peak seasons. There are the semi-locals, where this is one of their 3,4,5 + houses. They often like to say they live here when you ask them, though most full time residents aren't as.. we'll say flashy or dismissive. Those who do live here year round, they are laid back, comfortable, as likely to show up to an event in head to toe yoga wear (likely lululemon) as they are in their Dior dress.
It is a truly unique area, evolving into a parody of it's self possibly to it's own detriment but only time will truly tell. Constantly trying to prove to no one other than the others here that it is something to be reckoned with.
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