Montrose County Health and Human Services

RUGGED INDIVIDUALIST OR CHRISTMAS GRINCH

A myth is inherently not a true story, but a myth can either illuminate the truths in the story or further obscure them. The fable of the tortoise and the hare was never meant to suggest that rabbits and turtles spend a lot of time racing each other, but rather to throw light on what Aesop did perceive as true, that “slow and sure win the race.” But I don't want to squeeze anything more out of that myth. Rather there are two other myths that in some twisted way may be appropriate to the holiday season.

The first myth is the myth of the Rugged Individualist of the old West. This guy was beloved of every boy whoever put on a cowboy hat, a man who was self-made and faced the world alone. He could bake bread in the morning, shoe his horse in the afternoon, sing to the moon and stars in the evening and fend off a gang of villains at night. Our adult efforts to be this western Rugged Individualist are frankly laughable. We are not self-made—we are the products of our parents' love and guidance, our teachers' instructions, our grandparents' imparted wisdom and the tolerance of our spouses, to name but a few. We live in homes built by others, drive cars made by others, eat food grown by others and go to jobs probably created by others. We may not like to acknowledge the fact, but we can't get along without a lot of help from other people.

The second myth may sound more seasonally appropriate, yet the Grinch who stole Christmas is actually closely related to that Rugged Individualist. Indeed, he or she may be the alter ego of the Rugged Individualist. The Grinch was, of course, so heartless that he not only found no joy in Christmas for himself, but he also drained joy out of Christmas for others. I contend the Grinch is the alter ego for the rugged individualist because the more we delude ourselves into thinking we stand on our own two feet unaided by others, the less sympathy we have for the very real plight of others. “Nobody helped me on my path to success, so why should I feel a need to help you on your path,” would be the classic Grinch approach to a life in community.

Vulnerable populations suffer when we believe too much in the myth of the rugged individualist. Because we live with the delusion that we don't need help, we cut taxes to shrink government. Colorado took a big step in that direction when TABOR became law in 1992. Now, though we are seventh in the nation in terms of average family income, we are 47 th in the nation in K-12 education funding as a share of state income. We are 48 th in the nation in our support for people with developmental disabilities. Community Options, a service provider for people with developmental disabilities, has been around for nearly forty years, yet their ability to remain an effective service provider may hinge on our ability to stop believing the myth. Those two vulnerable populations, our children and people with developmental disabilities, don't want to hear how we can stand on our own two feet. They want to know we will help them stand on theirs. And though Grinches would say, “Let organizations like Community Options just disappear,” what would then become of the people they serve, people who cannot stand on their own two feet? This Holiday Season, lets order a bigger heart for every Grinch we know.