B-Minus Skiier
This morning, as I was driving from the gym in to work, I was behind a car with
New Mexico plates. New Mexico - "The Land of Enchantment". I was cold and
tired, and looking up at the foothills covered in snow. They looked lovely.
I told God, I said, "Okay, Lord. I'm ready to go back to the desert now, if'n You
want me to. Your Will be done; I'm just letting you know that it's okay with me."
I used to live in Tucson, and
loved it - the desert. The saguaros. The pink and
green everywhere. The only thing I didn't like was that it didn't snow, and the ski
season was
really short. As much as I loved it, I always felt like something
was missing; that years were passing by, and I wasn't getting to go skiing much.
And we moved to Vermont, and from there to Park City, UT, and I got to ski more.
But then I ran into the same problem I have with everything else - a complete lack
of talent. I'm a B-minus at
everything - no matter how hard I try, I get up to a
B-minus level, and then I'm through. Now, the upside of that is that I can do most
things (besides sing) at at least a B-minus level. But they say that, if you have a
talent for something, then you enjoy it and get better at it. I've never had a talent for
anything; I get to my B-minus level at whatever I'm doing, and then it loses its appeal.
That's not to say that I don't enjoy skiing - skiing rocks. It can be a blast, a kick. But
I'm aware that I won't get any better, and that has a built-in frustration level for me.
No amount of training or practice or classes is going to make me much better. So,
while I enjoy skiing, there's not much reason to try to ski 75 days a year. But, if I live
here, and if I have a ski pass, then of course I
have to try to ski 75 days a year.
So, God, I'm ready to go back to the desert now, if'n You want me to. If'n I"m gonna
be a B-minus at something, it might as well be laying in a hammock in the desert sun.
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