The downside of making it look easy
Great performers make it look easy. No one sees the
planning, the daily practice, the persistence, the sweat. The Pavarottis of the world seem
to step upon a stage and become instantly magnificent.
It’s the same with people who make vacations—that includes most
people with a job in the Wood River Valley. Visitors experience great performances here
every day, but they don’t notice them because they appear to be effortless.
Hotels and condos are clean, wait staff are friendly, clerks courteous.
The grass is clipped, the flowers beautiful. Events take place without a hitch. Printed
information is readily available. Visitors’ encounters with service workers are
mostly friendly and happy.
The whole place seems utterly laid-back and relaxed. It feels like
paradise. It looks like a place devoid of the stresses of America’s highly charged,
high-speed society.
Even though our numbers are in the thousands, those of us who create the
mountain paradise illusion are invisible because we are so good at what we do. That’s
the problem.
The people of Blaine County are so good at creating a vacation paradise
that even Idaho Republican Party chairman Trent Clark can’t see us. Consider his
comment printed in the Idaho Statesman this week: "The trust-fund babies in
Sun Valley are more economically conservative and are more liberal on social policies than
the blue-collar workers."
Apparently, it appears to Clark like no one here is worried about payday.
He ought to know better, but he’s not alone. It’s taken Idaho 30
years to recognize tourism as "real" business. Even some valley residents who
are not employed locally have difficulty seeing the enormous behind-the-scenes efforts.
Invisible, the obstacles that threaten those efforts—lack of
affordable housing, a labor shortage, attacks on budgets for visitor information services
and publicly funded marketing efforts, the high cost of doing business and the high cost
of living—go unaided and unresolved. If the obstacles were more visible, the most
talked about issue every summer would not be the shortage of parking spaces.
Perhaps valley workers should wear name badges that include information
lines as well. A few suggestions:
Waitress: "Single mother of two."
Hotel manager: "Distracted. My toddler home with the flu."
Groundskeeper: "Parent of four. Working on their college fund."
Dishwasher: "College student working for tuition."
Grocery checker: "Exchange worker exploring America."
Retail sales clerk: "Commute two hours a day to serve you."
Guide: "My training could save your life."
Baggage Handler: "Ask to see my mortgage!"
Of course, making the stagecraft visible could spoil the great
performances. Yet unless it becomes more visible, the failure to appreciate it and to help
the players overcome the challenges they face could cancel many great performances.
