Opposite Ends

During our vacation to Colorado we visited and experienced some of the craziest stuff that America has to offer.  Each day it seemed like we were seeing something new.  Two days in particular illustrate this, and I felt like what I saw was, in a strange way, competing world views.

One day we travelled several hours to The Great Sand Dunes National Park.  It was amazing, and I don’t use that term lightly.  While these pictures are great, they don’t do it justice.

You know all those movies that portray the desert in which people are stumbling through in search of water?  Yeah, it was like that.  Apparently over many years, as the wind blows over the mountains, it has deposited the sand leaving these massive dunes.  It is now a National Park, run by the Department of the Interior.  I first saw it on their twitter feed, which I highly recommend as they post some beautiful pictures of our national treasures.  They do a great job of maintaining the beauty of God’s creation so that future generations will be able to enjoy it just as much as we do.

The next day, after our visit to GSDNP, we found ourselves at a rather odd, yet popular site in that part of Colorado.  It’s called Bishop’s Castle.  The only thing that makes the builder of said castle a bishop is his last name.  What he has constructed at this site is definitely something that would cause the average person to gawk.  Again, the pictures don’t do it justice.

What makes this place really strange is how anti-Government this guy is.  We read some reviews before we went that said basically to avoid looking at the guy in the eye and to stay away from any conversation about politics.  Apparently, he thinks that all government is corrupt.  Now, while I am not one of those flag waving Americans like most, I do believe that in comparison to the rest of the world, we have a good thing going.  I take pride in the things we do well as a nation, yet believe that we are not perfect and could always do better.  That should always be our goal.  To improve.

So in two days, I felt like I saw two competing views of the world.  On the one hand, I witnessed one of the most amazing parts of the natural world, what I consider creation, going back to the original story that we find in the book of beginnings, Genesis.  The next day, I saw something that was made with human hands.  I have no idea why Mr. Bishop started to build the castle.  He now uses to attract people and takes full advantage to publicize his odd views on politics.  It all felt a little Tower of Babel-like to me.  In two days, I saw a bit of what God created and a bit of what human hands could create.  Honestly, it wasn’t much of a competition.