Moving On

I'm definitely not on the Western Slope anymore, so WesternSlopeExile is going to go dormant. You can still follow all the transitions, observations, season changes, and discoveries. Change those bookmarks to:

www.bozemanographer.blogspot.com

My three years of western slope life were amazing. It's hard to even remember life before the move. Colorado has been home for most of my life. I try to leave but can never find a place as good. How can you top the scale of Crested Butte, the high desert and orchards of Paonia, the vibe of Fort Collins, Denver's proximity to the goods? Montana is a very close rival, and has it's own twist. Nature is a conduit for the connection between God and man, and presents a unique interface as the geography and culture changes. Montana is vast, rugged, wild, and a little unnerving.

I am always investigating the question, how important is our geography to our happiness? Why do I need open space and topography? I don't know why it's important, I just know that it is. And, how important is career? Is it crazy to leave family and friends behind to make a living? I feel like my adult life is a pie cut into thirds. One piece is career/purpose, another place/adventure/discovery/recreation, and the third is family/friends/relationship. The three share mutual exclusivity as well as some interdependence and commonality - meaning that I can get two of them down at one time, but I've never been able to get three. When my career is on fire, it's not always in the place I want to live; sometimes I'm in a place I want to live and my career is going, but then I'm isolated from friends and family. I spent a lot of years being bitter about all of this, anxiously wondering where and when it all comes together. I've said that I'm more about the question than the answer. I don't always live that, but lately it's coming true. Bozeman is not about fixing problems. I reluctantly admit that there is no perfect place. It's about experiencing a beautiful, wild place; taking an active role in a company that strives to be different; righting my career; schralping some fatpow. Here's the real deal (and pardon me for getting all spiritual, my roots are showing):

Jeremiah 29:7 "seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

Move on over to the new blog.