Have you ever noticed how being right has become a religion on our culture? It plays a key role in the blame game that so frequently consumes modern media and politics, with the commentators playing the role of “being right” and others being blamed effectively “being wrong.” What a waste of time, energy, and human relationship equity! If you step back from situations and just watch, you can begin to see that many people are more concerned with being right than they are with accomplishing useful objectives or making progress.
Decades ago, Theodore Roosevelt made this observation: “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” (from “Citizenship in a Republic,” Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910)
So, what does this have to do with skiing? A lot, actually. Even though skiing is ultimately just sliding down frozen hills with sticks on our feet, some would endeavor to turn the approaches to it into “right” and “wrong.” I would prefer to continue growing, changing, learning, experimenting, and seeking my higher and better self, both on snow and in the rest of life. How about you?
Let’s go!
Posted by: — Stephen Hultquist
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