Ending Winter with a Smile
As I continue to try to make sense of the chaotic world around me I have come to a few realizations. 1st, Even though I think Rachel Maddow is brilliant, she is so intense that I end up exhausted, head spinning with conspiracies and rage each time I watch therefore I need to limit my time with Rachel for my own sanity. 2nd, I need to read more, I still haven’t finished Crime and Punishment and winter is waning. Can you read Dostoevsky in the summer? 3rd, I really like skiing and especially love a good powder day, and one in April! Wow that was something. But really, it’s enough of winter already let’s get on with Spring! Right?
Well I’m not quite ready to give up on skiing just yet. This was a winter to remember as Mr. Bentley reminded me yesterday, at least, that is, if you were skiers. And if you are a skier you know there is nothing quite like the thrill of skiing in deep snow. Powder days in the east are a rare occurrence not only as storms rarely drop 20-30 inches of snow, but when they do it is often heavy and wet. Experiencing that magical feeling of weightlessness, the floating from turn to turn effortlessly depends not only on the snow but on the slope of the trail as well. If the slope is too steep and the snow to light or not deep enough, you ski the bottom spraying the snow away with every turn. If the slope is not steep enough and the snow is too dense or too deep you work too hard and end up punished by gravity. But when you have the perfect combination of depth of snow, density of snow and the perfectly pitched trail, even these 50 year old legs respond. It is as if you just need to think your skis into the next turn while world slows to a rhythmic pattern of left and right, moving from moment to moment on the equilibrium of gravity and friction, that you can instantly recognize as pure bliss and have to smile. It is a feeling known the world over to skiers and one that most skiers spend their whole lives trying to recreate each and every year.
This year we have had more powder days to enjoy than I can remember and that is certainly something to celebrate. Some of my most lasting memories have come through skiing, teaching all three of my children ski, exploring the mountains of the West with friends and even getting sunburned to a crisp skiing a Swiss glacier in July. I’ve broken skis and bindings, broken ribs when I should have been practicing basketball, and fallen headfirst off a cliff, head over heels, knowing for certain I would end up in a ski patrol sled or hospital or worse.
Besides friendships and falls one thing that never gets old about skiing is witnessing someone experience the thrill of skiing for the first time. On Saturday I did get a chance to witness some new skiers, Ayman and Ghena, come down the slope at the lower lodge with that all too familiar skiers grin. As I walked into work this morning I recognized something in Ghena’s smile. It was the fact that that I’ve seen it before. In fact we’ve all seen it before and dare I say too that we’ve all worn that smile? I’ve seen it in the classroom and on the soccer field. I’ve seen it from a player on the foul line with the game on the line and displayed proudly on the face of a young man in wood shop. I’ve seen it on a student in Morse buried behind the wheel of an enormous press or the wheel of spinning clay. I’ve seen it captured in black and white or vivid pastels and I’ve seen arrive across the face of a self-conscious student when that quadratic equation could be factored. I’ve seen it so many times that some days I take it for granted.
And this morning, if I am lucky, maybe I convinced a few of you to learn to ski or to get back out on those skis and for that you’ll have to wait for another year because it is spring. And spring is that magical time of year in the North East Kingdom that brings flowers from frozen earth, leaves from barren branches and smiles from the people around us. It is our smiles that let us all know we are just a little proud of something we just did. Spring is a time to try something new, to put away those winter clothes and look forward to the warmer days to come. It is a time to push a little bit harder in your work, to try a new sport or a new club and to experience those moments where you do accomplish something you’ve always wanted to or never thought you could and to share it proudly with a smile.