The “Out” part of “Telluride Inside…and Out”

30 Nov The “Out” part of “Telluride Inside…and Out”

Take a left turn out of Telluride and people wind up some place wonderful in the great wide world, where they do wonderful things in a state of wonderment. That’s part of what we mean by the “Out” in the name of our blog: we will be documenting Telluriders when they are out and about having fun, making a difference.  

Local landscape designer Elisabeth Gick and Judge Sharon Shuteran both recently traveled to the Far East, as tourists and ambassadors of goodwill.

Elisabeth recently returned from Tibet, which she described to her email community in details both exquisite and excruciating: verdant landscapes, temples, tangkas, brocades, murals, prayer flags, farm villages, smiles that greeted her everywhere, but also hairy bus rides, unheated guest houses, and especially the siege defined by a beefed up Chinese military and police presence, new restrictive laws, compulsory re-education classes at monasteries.

Elisabeth asks us all to follow the results of a convention of Tibetan leaders in exile called by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in response to what she described as the “grimmest political climate since the Cultural Revolution 40 years ago.”

Elisabeth is back on the road until mid-December, when she will report on her further adventures.

For two weeks, Sharon worked in Bhutan as the non-medical coordinator on a team directed by Dr. Jeff Marsh, medical director of the Cleft Lip/Palate and Craniofacial Deformities Center at St. John’s Mercy Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri, and head of the Bhutan Cleft Care Project. The nonprofit helps kids smile more brightly – and more beautifully – following the good doctor’s blessed intervention.

Sharon also visited Laos, where she taught English through Big Brother Mouse, a nonprofit that encourages tourists to give kids in small villages books, not candy, and provides space for them to come together and learn. In Vietnam, she worked with a friend, the director of Hue University’s Center for Translation and Interpretation, again teaching English, at the same time braving the worst floods in 35 years in Hanoi.

Overall Judge Sharon was away for six and a half weeks. Now she is home for the holidays and back on the bench. Plans are for her to write for our blog on law and order. This talented chef and former owner of the Excelsior Cafe may also contribute recipes to our food section.

Clint and I recently returned from Chile, where Telluride was everywhere in evidence. More on that later…