’Tis a privilege to live in Colorado

The Denver Post used to print that motto on every edition and even had it on their old building. That building was obviously related to Holy Ghost Church, just a few blocks up the street – not just in that both were built by the Bonfils family, but in their shared architectural elements. (Sorry to say I can’t find an image of the old building.) Going to the Post was one of the best field trips in grade school because of the buzz of excitement that filled the place.

The Post abandoned the nice old building in the 80s. Editorial moved to a modern office building with a commanding view of the State Capitol and the City and County building below. (Would anyone believe that the placement of editorial posteriors above the local symbols of law is a coincidence?) For quite a few years they kept the motto (and another, of which more later) over part of the parking lot that had replaced the building and a few bits of the old walls as barriers between the parking lot and the sidewalk. (Production moved to a big new facility in an industrial part of town.) Now even the parking lot is gone – and the mottoes no longer animate the street. The building site, across the street from the convention center, is being excavated for a new hotel. At least that’s what they say. From what it looks like, they could be trying to tunnel to China for all I know.

Yesterday was a hot late summer day with a high on the wrong side of 80 degrees. In the afternoon, though, the privilege of living in Colorado asserted itself. The temperature dropped twenty degrees in two hours. By the time I walked the dog (around six), it was just perfect: about fifty degrees with a nice breeze and clouds racing across the sky. When storms roll in, I can understand how our forefathers came to worship storm gods such as Thor. The power and majesty of a storm are most impressive. The strongest men are puny in the face of them. But even the greatest storms are tinier still in comparison to our Creator. How amazing, then, that the living God would interest Himself in us!

This morning it was finally cool enough out to wear the leather jacket that my wife had bought for me back in the spring. It won’t be long and there’ll even be frost in the morning. A while after that and the frost will accumulate on my beard when I walk the pup. A little after that and it'll be time for the heavy coat and gloves. While hot weather is enervating, the cold’s invigorating power is greater. The idleness of summer is coming to an end and we see the signs of mortality about us. Carpe diem!

The other motto of the Denver Post was “O Justice, when expelled from other habitations, make this thy dwelling-place.” Suitably Victorian, but it implies that Justice doesn’t dwell here yet. Perhaps that was so in the Post’s earliest days. It’s so today for Lisl Auman Would it not be better to ask Justice fall like rain on all the Earth, than to consign other places to permanent injustice?