The great skiing shortcut

These days, learning how to ski is easy. The same could be said – even to a much larger extent – about snowboarding. Both sports now offer a much faster learning curve than they used to. However, when the newcomer has enough autonomy to go everywhere, stagnation creeps onto the scene in a big way. The skier (or snowboarder) has to put in even more time and miles in order to keep on improving. Basic skills like edge control (the holy grail of skiing) take years and miles on the slope to fully master and this can be very hard, for the newbie, to fully comprehend and accept.

This said, it's wonderful that new equipment and impeccable slope grooming can give a head start to all these new skiers. The industry needs it badly. But to becoming good and very good, still takes the same amount of time, work and dedication; the problem is that, with an introduction so fast and so easy, getting really good can be seen as much more frustrating and almost unattainable. In skiing, like in any other life endeavors for that matter, even the best shortcuts are never a substitute for running the entire course...

Present-packed Christmas

Last night we had a fun family celebration of Christmas, with grandson Finn, the centerpiece of this annual event. Good food, good company and a present overload. In spite of what we say all year long, it's hard to keep Christmas gift-giving simple and minimalist. We're all guilty of getting a little carried away. Commercialism has for sure taken over the annual festivity. We should establish present-giving rules and follow them faithfully, but the temptation is always lurking and never fails to take over the whole process. Well, there's always next year. In the meantime, Merry Christmas everyone!

At last, the mood-o-meter!

In time for Christmas Eve, and for those procrastinators, I'm suggesting a terrific gift idea. It can be worn like a wrist-watch, placed on your desk-top or your car dash-board and remind you all-day long about your state of mind, let's say mood if your prefer, and this way, we can call the product a mood-o-meter for lack of a better name. It's true that we always have a vague feeling about how things are inside our heads, but sometimes we forget and quickly get in trouble as we're not able to adjust our behaviors in relation to our moods.

In other words, a lousy, current state of mind takes over and ruin the day or bring havoc into a situation that could be pleasant, or into an event that should be merry, and what better time to use that device, during the always highly stressed, Holiday Season. So if you're interested – and I see no reason why you wouldn’t – in this all important mood-monitoring device, place your order today, I'll manage to find investors and get a production line going. The faster you order, the sooner you'll get your tool. For those of you that are iPhone users, yes; there will be an app!

Where are the snows of yesteryear?

François Villon, a XV Century French poet, thief, and vagabond wrote those lines and is not the only one having noticed that winters ago, there seem to have been much more snow than there's today. I've heard, you've heard it, you parents have stated the identical truth and I recall even having uttered the same, nonsensical statement. This week record snowfalls in Park City bring it front and center.

You see, I believe that the biggest problem with that observation is perspective. When I was 8 years old, I was 4 only feet tall and the berms left by the snowplow in the alps could reach between 2 or 3 feet in height. Contrast that with a 6 feet, 35 year old, who's looking at the same berms. They now appear tiny and a far cry from what they were more than one quarter-century before! Got it? Let's not discuss that ever again. Now I need to go out to shoveling and blowing the snow that fell again last night...

Discovering my aspirations

This might seem long overdue, but as we attempted to watch the two consecutive episode of “The Calling” on PBS, about these young folks that enter the religious service to become rabbi,

priest or imam, I was wondering why I never had such a religious calling. By the way, this was a wonderful show, but too much snow shoveling in the past two days only let me see 45 minutes of each two-hour installment; I intend to watch it on line, in full.

The answer to my lack of religious calling came to me clear and simple; I was forced into religion as a kid, never really bought into the convoluted story I was told and did everything I could to extricate myself from it. As for my true callings they were loud and clear: I wanted freedom from my parents and their attempts to dictating the way I should live, I loved skiing, I had a creative bend (first drawing and today writing and video producing), was insatiably curious and wanted to explore the whole wide world. One could discuss my choices, but they have managed to fulfill me and continue to captivate me!

Cultivating friendship

It takes time to be a good friend, it takes a lot of attention too. I'm blessed to having many good friends and it's a lesson that I must never forget when I'm up to the task of maintaining my “stable” of good buddies. Just like tending a bountiful garden. It demands attention, precision, love. It also grows well with mistakes, forgetfulness, misguided words and sometime mean behavior.

All these disparate moving parts eventually fall in to place, like the pieces of a beautiful puzzle, helping us learn, understand and get much better at the business of being good friends. Friendship is never a destination, but always a work in progress. This message is dedicated to all my good friends whom I value a lot.

Tech divide

This year we decided to forgo the printed holiday postcards and instead produce a video of my wife and I greeting our “public” and commented on the most notable events that happened in the past twelve month. This means that all the hard work was upfront as everything was sent via email to my large friends database, including many – but not all – of my Facebook “friends.”

As I was looking at the recipients' impressive list, it dawned on me that out of 320 names to whom I've sent that video, there are about one dozen left that don't have internet service; one-third of them live in the USA and the rest in France. These folks, most of whom are well into their sixties if not seventies, include one member of my direct family and it's pretty obvious that they're today literally left behind out of that new digital world and will be missing out a lot if they don't get on with the “program.” Will they really? I sincerely doubt it, but so is the cruel nature of change and evolution.