Around this time last year, Dr. Jim Taylor, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Denver, blogged Is Skiing the Best Sport? on HuffingtonPost.com and it's still a compelling read, but before I send you over to Dr. Taylor I want to add my two cents.
I took to skiing the hardscrabble way. My parents didn't ski, so getting out was up to me. They did get me my first skis one Christmas and bewildered as to why I wanted to spend hours in the cold, my mom still made me a sandwich. I never did tell her that the bread and the P&J froze solid while hiking to ski hills and slalom the headstones in the nearby rural cemetery.
Fast forward through high school ski clubs, college ski weeks, a 2 year military tour skiing Europe (God Bless the U.S.A.), a little ski bumming. Stop at yesterday and watch my college age youngest slip the surly bonds of Dad's control and fly down a double black on a pair of early Christmas Rossi's.
This Christmas, I'm happy I could give her a love of snowstorms and skiing on bluebird mornings and while I know she skis well, I still hope those snow angels she used to make will ski behind her, where I did, when she's off on her own.
Again:
This holiday season I wish for you:
That your fires be bright and warm,
That you be as happy as you were when you first ran through a snow storm with your mouth open,
That you find your snow angel again,
And no matter where you are I wish your snows be gentle and deep.
Mike
Read: Is Skiing the Best Sport?
At Vail Copyright Mike Doyle
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