Attitude adjustment…

“There are no facts, only interpretations. There are various eyes… and as a result there are various truths, and as a result there is no truth.”
            —Friedrich Nietzsche

The snow this week came in feet, not inches. The attitude adjustment was just as striking. Thanks goes out to the Crested Butte Professional Ski Patrol for getting some of the Extremes open. That is what this mountain is known for and a few rocks (okay, more than a few) won’t be unexpected up there.
The lift line of hundreds of people at the North Face Lift was incredible. The energy, the vibe, the mojo—whatever you want to call it—was good for a ski town. The line of literally hundreds of ants climbing across Rachel’s to the Glades at 12:30 on a Sunday afternoon was awesome. Watching patroller Bill Dowell put a couple of Xs under the open column on the trail board at the top of the Silver Queen was sweet.
Oh yeah… the long-range and the short-range forecasts both predict that more is on the way. We are a ski town and, in this case, more is better in terms of attitude adjustment…

In the Avalanche Bar after skiing Saturday, the conversation turned to the “meanness” of current discussions in Crested Butte. It was pointed out to me a couple of decades ago that while Crested Butte is a very friendly and supportive place to live, it is also one of the most “bare-knuckle towns” in the mountains, if not the universe.
For the most part, you’d better be able to take a punch if you want to dive into the local politics of the place. While good, honest, hard discussion is productive, the flame-throwing meanness that rises up too often is not.
Believe it or not, there are good points being made on both sides of issues like lifts vs. no-lifts; Wilderness designation vs. alternatives that include mechanized opportunities; bus stops in Crested Butte South vs. park-and-rides off the highway; annexing land north of Crested Butte vs. starting all over, etc., etc., etc. People on each side of the general political fence lobby me all the time to get rid of certain columnists or frequent letter writers. Too many people seem entrenched in the “my way or the highway” attitude and can’t seem to grasp the concept of tough yet respectful disagreement. They not only don’t want to listen to the other side, they give no credence to the opposite argument and don’t even want it uttered. That is not a good thing.

Those who pay attention can see the wheat through the chaff. But in a mid-winter plea to Crested Butte civility… can everyone chill and take the proverbial breath? Look around, for goodness sake. It’s pretty nice here even with all the changes of the past 30 years. In fact, I will argue (because that’s part of what we all do here) that some of those changes have actually made it nicer. As columnist David Brooks pointed out in a New York Times column this week, if the arguments on both sides become too simplistic, there is the danger of trading away “dynamic optimism, which always wins, for combative divisiveness, which always loses.”

Whether it is Snodgrass, Hidden Gems, what to cut in a shrinking school budget, what to annex to town, where to put an Arts Center, early morning powder grabbers vs. the plebes in line at the Queen, North Face rope drops or snow banks on Elk Avenue, this community will always have two sides.
But it matters how the fight is ultimately conducted.
It takes two sides to make thoughtful, constructive steps forward but those steps are better taken and more fruitful with dynamic optimism. And that involves at least a modicum of respect for your neighbors on the opposite side of the fence. What you may view as a blatant lie might actually be someone speaking the honest truth, as they perceive it.
The worst thing is getting so embroiled in the argument that nothing moves forward. At the edges of the primary argument dominating this place at the moment, we can’t even seem to agree what kind of ski town Crested Butte is, or wants to be in the eyes of the world and this community.

Hey, the snow has come in feet and the Extremes are opening. No one will argue (but someone might try) that life is better in this ski town as a result of the fresh. Look around. Enjoy the postcard. And somehow, adjust the attitude to include a bit of dynamic optimism.