Category: 1,000 Words

A picture says a thousand words. Let’s hear a few.

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Koyaanisqatsi

It has become so easy to believe that we hold dominion over the world. That we are in control. That the forces that gave us life can be bent and shaped by our will. In our personal lives we encounter hardships that can slow, or sometimes stop us, but we have faith that we will persevere, that we will emerge on the other side stronger, stripped away of what is non essential.

But this isn’t always the case.

There is so much of this world that is bigger than us, stronger than us, so much that will outlast us, that all we can do is hold on, find our center, and do our best.

This is faith.

Our world is changing. It doesn’t matter what you believe in or who you think might save it. Whether it’s illness or war or climate change or any other crisis we face, we cannot expect that our lives will not be disturbed, that we can go on as we always have.

We have to make changes.

We have to disrupt the very systems we rely on. We will have to suffer or go without, there is no other way around. We cannot have it all. We can wait until the bitter end, until our systems are stressed and our security broken, until our air is choked and our water is poisoned, until our family is sick and our loved ones are dying, or,  we can think ahead.

We can act.

We can sacrifice and adapt so that the most vulnerable among us might be spared the most damaging consequences. None of us asked for this responsibility, none of us want it, but it is our fate. We have to find compassion for the process, solidarity for our sacrifices, or we will be stranded alone.

This is our world. A life out of balance. 

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Birkie Fever

It hurt. I anticipated that. About 40k in, my arms were starting to cramp. When I reached the lake I could feel the gas really running out. When I crossed the finish line I could barely walk, my feel were so sore. But it was a success, I finished. My first Birkie, I was proud of my effort and I couldn’t ask for anything more.

What I hadn’t anticipated was the view, the sounds, the feeling that greeted me when I topped out on the bridge and looked down onto Main Street. A thousand people? More? The sound was deafening, the air was electric. The road covered with snow and skiers, the sidewalks packed with screaming fans, for a brief moment we all shared in the spectacle. I wasn’t ready for how that made me feel.

In a word, inspired.

For a few hours I stumbled around watching new friends finish, meeting fans, drinking coffee, beer, eating doughnuts, whatever I could find. I walked up onto the bridge and looked back down Main Street, it made me want to cry.

During a time when everything feels so fragmented, so divided, when huge problems loom all around us seeming bigger than we could possibly ever solve, here was a writhing, thriving, refreshing, and reassuring mass of people gracefully proving all that wrong.

Close to six thousand people skied the birkie that day, and each one of them possesses a spirit of courage and determination necessary to overcome challenges we can’t even imagine, all borne from the most simple love of sliding on snow.

I’m grateful for every facet of the ski industry and culture that occupies my life, but this one runs deepest, it’s opened to door to it all. There’s no paying back where it’s gotten me or how it’s helped me navigate the twists and turns, the hills and icy tracks of my life. There’s only taking part, in continuing the tradition, skiing every day with love and gratitude.

Thanks to the over three thousand volunteers who made this event one of the most memorable weekends of my life. I look forward to seeing you again. 

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Homecoming

Places shape us. They become part of us. Whether its the people or the landscape, the culture or the environment, or any number of things in between, some places dig deeper into us than others. Places we grow up, places we pass through, who we are, how we interact, it all plays a role in our experience, what we give, what we take away. We all have places we call home, places we feel home, places we love, places we loath, places we begrudgingly accept as some intrisic part of who we are. Although these places might be a part of us, might come with us everywhere, sometimes, we return to them physically. This homecoming can be a relief, it can be a reawakening, it can be a rediscovery. Coming home can reveal things we missed the first time, it can remind us of who we once were, who we really are, and where we’re heading next.  Continue reading “Homecoming”

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One Thousand Words

You’ve heard it before. A picture is worth a thousand words. And we love them: images, because of their depth, their layers of insight. A picture tells us so much, not only of it’s subject, but insinuations are made to it’s creator as well. Their eye, their thoughts and emotions bleed into the frame. Seeing is believing, and so often if we don’t understand, we need to see it to get the picture.

Now a days our world is saturated with images. From advertisements that carry connotations of sex and mystery, to news media that inflames, and infuriates. All the while flooded by a steady stream of social media pictures. All together that’s a lot of words, a lot of thoughts and facts and feeling, and it can be a bit much. It washes over us, desensitizing us to a degree from the images that might have otherwise had a dramatic impact on our lives.

Images carry power. Sometimes it’s unspeakable or intangible, but its a strong emotion every viewer shares. Other times the picture might be veiled or vague, an elicit drastically different reactions from viewers based on their past.

I want to start a new Album, a bit of a study. I’d like to publish a picture here every week and accompany it with one thousand words that I associate with the image. Sometimes that might be what it says to me, what it’s of, experiences or memories it dredges up, or maybe just what I was doing when I took it.

One thousand words can be a lot, so I might not always make it, after all I’ve written about two hundred seventy words at this point and said pretty much all there is to say. This is an introduction with a bit of accountability thrown in as well. If I manage to run with this theme for a while, I thought it might be helpful to have a post to kind of explain it. The accountability might be more apparent to me as I haven’t published here in a while, but whether or not it actually encourages me to do the work remains to be seen.

Some pictures we look at ever day, whether they’re on the wall or background of our computer. Their story changes and evolves. Other images we haven’t seen for years, but their sight is familiar and nostalgic. Every picture is hiding it’s thousand words, and I hope that by sharing a few of mine here, we might be able to slow down and appreciate the depth of some of the more profound images that wash over us every day.