My wife and I got married here in Vail on the wedding deck. Technically, we were married two days after the ceremony in Avon at the clerk and recorder’s office as our wedding planner had thought of every last detail — except reminding us to get a marriage license. Now, we have the distinction of having two anniversaries each year. My wife lobbied for two sets of presents, but I held my ground on that one.

Later that year, we went on our honeymoon to Bora-Bora, a remote island in the South Pacific. It’s one of those places where your room is a hut out over the water. It was beautiful, relaxing, and remote. It felt like being in a tiny bubble where the rest of the world no longer existed.

There was no local newspaper, but the hotel published a small paper each day that contained the local weather forecast (which was always the same), the day’s activities around the island (which also never changed), and maybe one headline story from a New York or London paper. For me, cutting myself off from the rest of the world was bliss — at least for a while.

One of the reasons we moved back to the Vail Valley was that, in Silicon Valley, you just couldn’t escape the tech immersion. It’s not that I didn’t want to remain engaged; I just wanted to do it in a more constrained way.

Here in the valley, we have our own little Bora-Bora. Tucked here in the mountains, it is easy to disconnect. With only 5,500 residents in Vail and 2.8 million visitors each year, I would bet that many seek that same break from the world that we did in Bora-Bora.

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I first realized that things were going to be different when I saw that the second major news section in the Vail Daily was labeled “Wolves.”  With the recent policy change where the paper no longer publishes columns focused on national politics, it became even easier to disconnect.

There is so much to like about our tiny bubble here in the valley. What I noticed, however, was that, unlike any other place I have ever lived, engagement on national and global issues now takes more effort. Here, this type of engagement is more of a “pull process” versus a “push process.” One of the great resources I quickly discovered was the Vail Symposium, which provides excellent content for locals to stay informed on global issues. I have found it to be an important resource.

With all of the chaos happening both nationally and globally right now — far more than I have ever seen in my lifetime — it is alluring to embrace our disconnectedness and withdraw into our own little world. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work. 

For example, it was cited several years back that one of Vail’s largest areas for potential tourist revenue growth was from foreign countries — specifically Canada and Mexico. With that in mind, our current isolationist approach to relations and trade is likely going to have an impact on our local economy. For this valley, like it or not, our main industry is tourism. If that declines, we are all hurt.

It is often said that the most powerful impact people can have is helping out in their local communities, and I believe it. We must also face the simple fact that, no matter how much we might want to live in a tiny bubble, it is not the way our world works. We must maintain our awareness and engagement at all levels.

Mark Lewis, a Colorado native, had a long career in technology, including serving as the CEO of several tech companies. He’s now retired and writes thriller novels. Mark and his wife, Lisa, and their two Australian Shepherds — Kismet and Cowboy, reside in Edwards.