Sitting on an airplane, sipping ginger ale, listening to trip hop, I reflect... A week in Colorado is a beautiful thing. If you ever lose your sense of wonder, Colorado is the place to find it. Every time I go somewhere I search for the hidden treasure that makes the location unique. This time out I found the town of Manitou Springs nestled in a narrow canyon between the garden of the gods and Pikes peak. This is the last great outpost for the remnants of those who were both at Woodstock or conceived at Woodstock. I've never met such a group of liberals. Really wonderful people who (like the parents on Dharma and Greg) who ran so far left that they've come full circle and are, in many ways, more conservative than those on the far right. Hemp wearing children and blunt talking (and toking) grandparents bookend neo hippie 40-50 somethings who run the many coffeehouses, art stores, and knick knack shops that have kept the gold rush town alive. Just to the east of the cog railway to the top of Pikes peak is the only true Melodrama Dinner theater that I've seen outside of Europe. Were it not for the senior citizen busses taking up all of the parking spaces and good seats, I might have stayed. The asthetic highlight to the whole trip was taking a run through the garden of the gods. A stellar trail winds through massive red rocks that jut out of the earth hundreds of feet into the air, hence the name. Some appear to balance as precariously as an egg on a toothpick. Ok there is a point to all of this.
I walked into the lobby of the Park Plaza Hotel on the morning of my seminar and said to the man behind the counter, "Is there ever a day when you don't just stare at the mountain?". Pikes peak was cleverly framed for his viewing by the front windows of the lobby and is just majestic in it's perfection. He replied with a shocking, "Honestly I never notice it." The tragedy of the statement apparently caught him off guard and he conciously looked past me and out the windows at the mountain. A smile slowly crept across his face as he awoke to wonder all over again. He stared for a long time before he spoke again and said, "I've never driven to the top. I think I will when I get off work today." "Good show" I said and turned toward the seminar room.
There's such a sermon here. I'll give you the elements; the majesty of God, our apathy infected eyes, a reawakening to wonder, a desire to draw closer and go higher. You get the picture...