GET SMART: DO WHAT YOU LOVE, LOVE WHAT YOU DO.

DON ADAMS IN GET SMART (AMERICAN '60S TELEVISION COMEDY)

There is nuance in my title that I shall set straight. Do what you love means to do something just because you love doing it, whereas love what you do means finding joy in doing something you likely would not be doing unless you were remunerated. In the context of this blog entry, the difference is subtle but significant.

These wintertime days I skate and ski. I love skating and I love skiing and do both as much as I can. Though I find joy in my contract employment working with young offenders, and I find joy in running my private hypnotherapy practice, I doubt I would be doing either if I were not being remunerated.  

I LOVE SKATING. I have been skating as long as I can remember, my first memory being when I was five and my dad would drive me over to the closest outdoor rink. I vividly remember pushing a wooden chair around and around and around on the ice until my dad drove back to retrieve me. I also remember being the only skater at that crowded rink pushing a chair.

By seven years of age my parents had split, and I was living with my grandparents in Vanguard, Saskatchewan. At the Vanguard indoor public rink, I skated practically every day it was open. During the public skate there was always the sound of music on the loudspeaker, while all of us rink rats skated clockwise ‘round the ice surface, then switching to counterclockwise, and then back to clockwise when commanded over that same loudspeaker. And all of us wore the fashion navy or white kangaroo jackets, the sixty-year forerunner today’s hoody (methinks).

Sometimes when the rink manager (friendly giant, William Burton) would exit the building for a spell, we’d abandon the carousel skate in favor of Pom Pom Pull Away, a group game of ice tag, while some of the girls on the ice would practice their figure twirls.

At eight years of age, I was playing my first season of hockey, wee-wee (under 10). And I continued to play hockey, pee-wee (under 12), bantam hockey (under 14), midget hockey (under 16), juvenile hockey (under 18), and senior hockey (18+). All these "Vanguard Eagle” hockey years in Vanguard, I played in the NHL (the NOTEKEU HOCKEY LEAGUE), which included teams from the other small towns of Aneroid, Ponteix, Cadillac, Val Marie, Pambrun, Neville, Hodgeville, and Gravelbourg. I also played senior hockey for the Swift Current Indians in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and the Icemen, in Regina, Saskatchewan.

No longer playing organized hockey (because of other commitment and precious time factors), I now only skate outdoors, and only two or three times per week. This type of skating is doing what I love, on my favorite rink, The Rink On Wascana.

GLIDING 'NEATH A GIBBOUS MOON (THE RINK ON WASCANA)  

RINK ON WASCANA MANAGER

Whenever I am skating at the Rink On Wascana, even with all my 65 years of skating, I still practice my technical skills, putting most my weight on the outside skate for example, which I unwittingly learned from being a ski instructor. Technically perfect physical turns for both, demand putting one’s weight on the outside foot. Turning left when skating, the outside foot is the right foot (pun intended), and when making turns going downhill on skis, the outside foot is the one toward the bottom of the hill.   

I LOVE SKIING. My first time on alpine skis was with my cousin at White Track Ski Hill, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. I was 21 and in my first-year at the University of Regina. From White Track, I went on to ski at all the local hills, Hidden Valley just 15 minutes north of Regina, Saskatchewan, Fort Qu’Appelle Ski Area (now called Mission Ridge Ski Resort), 45 minutes east of Regina, and Ochapowace Ski Hill, 90 minutes east of Regina.

A few later working on pipelines and living in Kamloops, British Columbia, I would ski at Mount Tod (now called Sun Peaks), just north of Kamloops, Silver Star at Vernon, B.C., and Big White at Kelowna, B.C.

Married with children, we’d go on yearly ski trips to the Lizard Range of the Rocky Mountains in Fernie, British Columbia, Sunshine and Lake Louise in the Alberta Rockies. The last couple winters we’ve spent Christmas at Whistler Ski Resort, the largest ski resort in Canada

Factoid: As I am typing this blog entry, I am also gearing up for a ski trip next week to Elkwater Hidden Valley, Cypress Hills, Alberta.

Factoid: The more wrinkled I get the more I perpend. The golden handcuffs of my workday government contracts and, too, of my small beer private hypnotherapy practice, offer me the GET SMART financial security to do what I love without having to worry so much about budget, while also keeping me in the way of Zen, the practice of continually seeking joy in whatever work I do. Also, these past couple winters, I’ve been a ski instructor at Mission Ridge Ski Resort, at Fort Qu’Appelle. (I took the ski instructor course at age 72, and am now a professional with the Canadian Ski Instructor Alliance, receiving remuneration whenever I teach a ski lesson. Hmmm. Not-so-strangely, skiing for me seems to fit both the DO WHAT YOU LOVE and LOVE WHAT YOU DO edicts in this blog title!).

SKIING IN -26 DEGREES AT ELKWATER

Come summertime when my skating and skiing fall into abeyance, I am looking forward to the clement days of hiking, diving, and busking. But this is another blog entry.

Marching in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week, a couple of caninophiles!