So, in an attempt to get ahead of things, I am just going to apologize in advance to all you DGO lovelies who may have come here today in order to get the latest information on embattled Attorney General Jeff “My Experts Are Probbbbbbably Experts In Some Arena, It Just Happens Not To Be Cannabis” Sessions and the recent shots fired by the current clowns in the circus known as Washington, D.C., across the bow of the recreational cannabis systems in place across the country (including, by the way, the one in – get ready for it – Washington, D.C.). If that is what you are after, I refer you to every. single. other. cannabis-related. media. outlet. in. the. nation.
No, my friends, our business here today concerns the salvation of souls – it’s about finding that place within ourselves that we may remember from a time that has probably settled into memory with the tones of an Instagram filter; that handful of moments when the sun shined on your face after what felt like an eternity of clouds; when that special person let you know that you held the same place in their heart that they held in yours; when the hard work was done and the future sat there specifically for you. You know these moments. They are the reason we carry on when times get tough. There is salvation to be had for each and every one of us wandering this material plane. It can be found in the recognition that we are, each and every one of us, made of the same starstuff that makes up the oceans and the forests and the birds flying above us in the country and the cities and in every micrometer of outer space, in diamonds and ashes and sand, there is salvation.
I found this salvation in a seed, and I exhort you to look there for yours. Now is the time of year to begin your garden. Colorado has returned to each and every adult the universal right to grow cannabis. Do yourself a favor and take advantage of this right. Yes, growing your own represents a political statement in 2017’s oh-so-strange version of America. But, more than that, it will align you with the essence of what it means to be a human being in ways you cannot imagine until you have done the thing.
Some of the best cannabis the world has ever known grows right here in Colorado. Some of the best cannabis ever grown has done so in the rugged mountains between India and the Black Sea – the places now marked “Enemy Territory.” I’ve enjoyed a toke at one time or another with folks who could be called white, brown, yellow, red, and every other color one could call another human. I’ve burned with the rich, the poor, the squarely middle-class, and with those who decided to leave money behind and throw their lots with the wilds beyond civilization, with folks twice my age and folks half my age, with ivy tower intellectuals and pistol-packing rednecks. I promise you, when the weed takes hold and the foreheads soften above the eyes, it’s easy to remember that we are all just flesh, blood, and bone, separated only by circumstance.
Dirt, water, wind, sun; work, contemplation, care: This is the recipe for a more finely-tuned life, an opportunity to remember that we are all one, that every division foisted upon us is done for its own reasons but that these things that drive us apart will, themselves, eventually collapse to rubble like everything that came before us, like everything that surrounds us, and everything that has yet to be made.
Christopher Gallagher lives with his wife and their four dogs and two horses. Life is pretty darn good. Contact him at [email protected].
