Lesson 1

A man learns to skate by staggering about and making a fool of himself. Indeed he progresses in all things by resolutely making a fool of himself.

George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, critic and political activist (1856-1950), in Advice to a Young Critic

Throwing most of my cautious nature aside, I plunged onto the ice this evening for my first skate in about 20 years. My last memory of being on ice was the surreal experience of skating beside the Nile in Cairo. It was almost as warm here with unseasonally high temperatures so I could enjoy a hot chocolate outside before lacing up the skates. Once on the ice, the teacher's first instruction was to fall down: I froze because falling was the last thing that I wanted to do. A friend had written with advice: "Remember to always be relaxed and if you are going down, then DO NOT fight the fall. Enjoy the fall and roll, allowing the entire body to enjoy the ice!!! This will avoid from anything breaking!" Instead of "enjoying the fall", I fought it. I somehow got down rather ungraciously . . . only to have the teacher then instruct us to get up! Suffice it to say that after failing the first two tests, I had no dignity left to worry about so I just had fun. I need to work on my "rocking horses" and my "squiggles" but Chuck Berry singing "the Twist" in the background certainly helped my backwards skating. I'm looking forward to Lesson #2 so stay tuned! :-)