…Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come…
— from the poem ‘An Essay on Man’ by Alexander Pope, 1733.
If we are to take Alexander Pope at his word, he believed I will be resting and expatiating in a life to come. Not that he knew me, personally. I wasn’t born when he wrote his essay, but he was addressing his message of hope to “Man”. And I am, after all, a “man”
If he wrote the same poem in 2026, I bet he would include “Women”. But women were easier to ignore in 1733.
The message of his poem is actually not, however, all that hopeful, if you read it carefully. He seems to be proposing that we will remain unsatisfied with our lives, no matter how hard we try… but all is not lost, because whatever God has created is, in the end, “good.”
The end being, presumably, our eternal life in Heaven.
I wasn’t familiar with the term “expatiates”. The word seems to have gone out of style in the years since 1733. I guess it means, “to wander freely, without restraint.” He could have simply said what he meant, but poets like to keep us running to the dictionary so they can feel free to write their concise but obscure verses.
I was, meanwhile, quite familiar with the phrase, “Hope springs eternal”. It’s one of my dad’s favorite expressions. He applied it to a wide variety of situations: marriage, politics, career promotions, even the occasional overcooked pot roast.
Daily Post editor Bill Hudson recently posted a couple of op-ed articles about plans emanating from the Archuleta Board of Education for a proposed $126 million school building to replace the existing Pagosa Springs Elementary and Middle Schools. The project, which would require a property-tax-funded bond issue, has been a subject of discussion at the school district since at least 2012, when the voters rejected a similar proposal by a 3-to-1 margin.
But hope springs eternal.
It’s entirely possible that our souls are going to rest and expatiate in a life to come, which implies — to my mind at least — that kids won’t have to attend school and take standardized tests. But here on this earthly plane, we still have schools and property taxes and bond issues.
As part of the effort by the school district — to hopefully convince us that increased property taxes to help fund a new facility is a good idea — the district website has posted an ‘interactive map’ that can provide us with a biased view of the proposal. The map sort of looks like a “pirate map” with a trail winding through a rural Colorado landscape to a New School. A Pirate waits at the start of the trail, hoping eternally for a new school to be constructed. In the background we see snow-peaked mountains, a reservoir that reminds me of Stevens Reservoir, a ski hill with a chair lift, and of course, the San Juan River.
The school district explains:
We created this interactive map as part of our commitment to transparency — to make information about the district’s facilities planning process easy to access, understand, and explore.
Here’s a ‘non-interactive’ version of the map.
The ‘interactive version’ can be accessed here. The interactive version is more entertaining, but perhaps also more biased, in terms of promoting a hefty tax increase. If you click the “Map Key” icon, for example, you will be presented with numerous reasons why a new $125 million facility is a much better choice than simply repairing and upgrading our existing school buildings.
Some readers might wonder why there is a Pirate standing at the trail head, dressed in Pirate clothes and boots, and equipped with a large backpack, hiking stick, water bottle, and sleeping bag. The explanation is simple. The “Pirate” is the mascot for our Pagosa Springs schools. We’re the Pagosa Pirates. And we’re going places.
The reason why a school system would choose a murderous criminal as their team symbol, is lost in the mists of time. But at least it’s not an Indian, thus assuring us that the school district maintains a certain level of respect for Native American tribes.
The Pirate, who appears to be maybe 12 years old, wears an expression I would classify as “hopeful”.
The nearby signpost helps explain that optimistic expression. “Mission: Student Success”. The school district has one abiding goal, and will do most anything to achieve it.
I’ve noticed that students these days often arrive at school wearing a small backpack, presumably containing their lunch, homework, water bottle, and maybe a change of clothes? I’ve not noticed any students wearing a backpack quite as large as the one shown on the Pirate’s back, but the road from “Student Success” to a new $125 million school building is not just a walk in the park.
If you visit the ‘interactive’ version of this map on the district website, the signposts along the trail rock gently back and forth to indicate that they’re clickable links. And if you hover over the first signpost — “Mission: Student Success” — the Pirate suddenly jumps up into the air with a gleeful expression.
That’s the only signpost link that makes the Pirate jump when you hover over it. (I think the map designers could have made the Pirate jump again when you hover over the New School Building, but no.)
When I was in Boy Scouts, we occasionally did backpacking trips in the mountains, and I know very well what a fully-loaded backpack feels like. Based on the drawing, I would estimate the Pirate’s backpack to weigh in the neighborhood of 40 pounds. The idea that a 12-year-old wearing a 40 pound backpack can jump a foot or two in the air while giving an enthusiastic cheer, is a bit unrealistic.
But as mentioned, hope springs eternal.
And then, we rest and expatiate.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.