icing_on_the_cake crOwl one of our students in the ski school today was a twin. his name was matthew and he was six. his brother, andrew, was in a different class when the lessons went outside. i went out, not to teach as usual, but to film because my daughter, greta and i are making a documentary for the school, but as i was shooting along came another instructor who had matthew. there was a problem because he was afraid of the chairlift and wouldn't ride it, no matter what gentle coaxing and urging was attempted. even the parents tried. big money was offered. even andrew said he would give him his light sabre. matthew was a shrewd one. he had a plausible excuse for every offer. "i have enough money," he said. "i already have a light sabre." the instructor had to go on with his other students so i took matthew as mine, put the camera away and tried to change his mind. first of all, i wanted to understand his fear. what was it that was scaring him? he tried to explain that it was too high, which it is, but it's very safe to ride, everyone does. even his brother. yet, there was an introspective look on his face signifying a lot was going on in his illustrative mind. i would have loved to know what he was thinking. how this fear had the power to paralyze him. what was he comparing it to? why could his twin brother ride it and not him? i told him there were polar bears at the top of the mountain for us to see, albeit wooden cut-outs. he liked that. he was even willing to look at the pictures on the lift house to risk being enticed. however one of the bears was painted with his hands over his eyes, obviously frightened. of what?! riding the lift? i never noticed that before. he did. "look!" he yelled."even that bear is scared." how could i argue with that. he was absolutely right. by the way, why did our resort put that scared bear up there for eveyone to see anyway? doesn't make sense. although i guess we try to laugh at the things we're afraid of... he did want to ski, so he asked me if we could walk up the hill. first it was just a little bit. next time it was more. eventaully, we took our skis off and walked halfway up the mountain, passing other istuctors with their claases who peered at me with that obvious, "what the fuck?" looks. he loved it. he did really well. he could stop by himself. he could turn. he even went down decently steep parts. but here's the amazing thing ...how much courage does it take to walk up a ski slope when everyone else is coming down? what are people thinking about you? that you are an idiot? a wimp? a baby? a scaredy cat? he didn't care what anyone thought. he never said a word about anybody else. he just kept saying, "let's go higher. we're almost there. we have strong legs." he told me about his dog. his many cats. and get this...his parents looked down on us from the lift, shouted down to him and saw to what great lengths he went just so he could ski. when the lesson was over, i told pam, the cool lady that runs our school all about it and she called for a shuttle to run me, matthew and his brother up to the top of the mountain so matthew could do the whole slope. cake is yummy, but it's the icing we all really want. 060130 what's it to you? who go blather from