Distance = 23 Miles; People Met = 1
We spent the night in Deckers. Don, the man who escorted us into the ice cream shop, offered his place above the shop to sleep for the night. We were a little hesitant for two reasons: this would mean a 23 mile day into Woodland Park; and they were smokers.
Yet Don was a lively, enthusiastic fellow and he genuinely wanted us to stay with him. In fact, he kept thanking us through the evening for staying with him. We were glad we did, for between talking to him in the evening and his girlfriend Leah the following morning we gained new insight and appreciation for the value of community. We talked to them at different times because of their different schedules; Leah getting home late from working; Don leaving early in the morning for a commute to Denver. Both were from the Denver area originally, both had troubled pasts, but both were now thriving in the small community setting of Deckers.
I recall a movie, I think called Madame X, where the main character started out as a well-heeled, well-respected woman of high society but a series of unfortunate circumstances led to her downfall. Leah told us of an opposite story. Her father was in a motorcycle gang, she was in a motorcycle gang, she claimed not to be a good person in those days, she spent some time in prison.
Now as a member of the Deckers community she attends community meetings, helps out at community activities, provides food to people in need, and is glad to house a couple of ADT wayfarers. A similar story was told by Don the evening before. None of this surprised us, of course, but perhaps in the telling of their tales I could not help but juxtapose it with the Madame X story and gain a little extra meaning from it.
Human nature is tremendously varied, both between individuals and within individuals. Our environment has much to do with how our nature plays out. Madame X went from good to bad, yet you feel she laments what happened to her. A fictional movie, sure, but close to what we sense would be the reality. Leah went from a bad situation to a good one, with no lamentation. Her and Don were glad about their new situation, even though it meant greater work and commitment on their part.
So even as our natures are varied there is something inside that claims to us that we ought to be social, we ought to live in community. We may accept and even seek antisocial situations, and some of us may be more glad to do so than others, but in the end the most content among us are those whose communal side are allowed to thrive.
Donna (Don's Mom), Don, and Leah
