I have a friend, I will call him John for convenience. John appears fearless: an accomplished business person, athlete, risk taker, honest, straightforward, someone you can count on – we all need a friend like John. We often ski together and this winter we were having coffee waiting for the lifts to open at a rather daunting ski area. The view of lifts disappearing up a very steep hill into the morning fog was intimidating. John said “I will be glad when the first run is over and the anxiety is gone.” I was pretty sure I was the only one who felt that way on the first run, the first tee, the weekly blood pressure check. Self imposed stress may be bad for you but it seems necessary to jump start the adrenaline. I really appreciate John sharing his feeling. I hope each of you have advisors, mentors, friends for the occasional sanity check.
My son in law-Holt-on the other hand views life without apparent fear, trepidation, or self doubt. He tells me “if you are not living on the edge you are taking up too much room.” Recently I was guarding the ten month old grand daughter as she crawled down the couch (she also favors the edge) and when she reached the arm she climbed right over – I did not let her head plant from three feet. I watched Holt cruise down the mountain last week with Clio in the front pack – I could not keep up for a picture but it was all smiles. Clio will give Holt and Katie a run for their bitcoin.
Each child is unique – timid, aggressive, outgoing, special needs, and each will be shaped for the future by many factors – their parents, community, schools, and maybe even their grandparents. The one non debatable ingredient for success will be education. 50% of Idaho’s 4 year olds are not ready to learn in kindergarten. The Idaho School Readiness Act will hopefully get a hearing this legislative session. Let’s give each Idaho child a solid and lasting foundation for their future.
I just learned that Warren Miller died yesterday. Talk about someone who had a positive influence on many lives – he was responsible for introducing generations of people to skiing and “pure freedom”. There is no denying the magic of his films – he made us want to ski and showed us over and over again what makes the sport so great. We had the privilege of meeting him once at Big Sky and he lived up to the hype – friendly, enthusiastic – we still have the signed poster and lift tickets he gave us. He lived to the ripe old age of 93 by the moto “If you don’t do it this year, you’ll be one year older when you do.” Excellent advice from a skiing legend.
A few more wise words from Warren: “Freedom is located somewhere outside the box” and maybe my personal favorite: “How old would you be if you didn’t know when you were born?”
Mike