Today may have been the hottest day I have rode this year. I was distraught all week leading up to Saturday due to not being able to find my cold weather cycling clothing. The last week of September on the seacoast very rarely allows for t-shirts and shorts in the morning. However, the leg warmers and shoe covers would not be needed today. Copious amounts of water would be however, much to my chagrin after not having drank enough.
I write rather poorly. This is not a talent deficiency that should be suffered by a blogger. My hypothesis is that TheSnowWay.com is read despite the quality of writing rather than because of it. Quality of content and subject matter carry the web site, not the prose or writing style.
That may be an exaggeration. I write at a higher level of proficiency than average. And I write well enough to entertain and engage. But I do not attain the highest levels or artistry with words that I desire nor what better than average writers are capable of. My opportunity to improve my style is significant. And my current level of proficiency is concurrent with my effort, or lack thereof, to improve upon it.
My pre-collegiate English and grammar classes generally filled me with disgust. Whether bad teaching or lack of aptitude and natural talent were the cause, I don’t know. Likely a combination of both.
My collegiate Composition classes further failed to instill good writing habits. Instead, my Composition instructors in college focused on their favorite pet subjects in lieu of teaching good writing. My two biggest take a ways from Composition I were the definitions of connotation and denotation. My two biggest take a ways from Composition II included a profound appreciation for e.e. cummings and redefining my understanding of Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken (“I shall be telling this with a sigh…”).
My writing skills, as they are, were developed primarily in writing research papers in College and in writing emails in business. Both learning environments have created a tendency for overly long and excessively wordy writing. Neither environment produced stylistic writing but both get the job done effectively and were practical.
In my undergraduate classes, page count was of ultimate importance. I learned how to effectively stretch sentences. Excessive usage of multiple prepositional phrases within each sentence often accomplished this goal. Overly wordy sentence structure was key. Incorporating complex words and spelling out their definitions was a must. And I was rewarded for these poor writing tactics with good grades. Here is Calvin on academic writing:
Business writing exacerbated an already terrible style. My email writing is always thorough, complete, and detailed. I attempt to cover all the bases and answer potential questions before sending a message. My emails become technical documents in and of themselves. If a communication is really that difficult or causes concern for misinterpretation, a telephone or in person call should be used rather than an email.
In both cases, as with all writing, less is more. Last year I read a great book called Letting Go of the Words by Redish. This book was more about web site design, navigation, and code styling than actually about how to write. But the principle is still the same with writing: Less is more. Another lesson I have learned is eliminating conjunctions in favor of periods.
I continue to struggle. But my writing is improving. As a result, hopefully the quality of this web site and your reading experience are also improving. During this online epoch of 140 character limit Twitter Tweets and quick hit Faceook status updates, I will continue to flesh out subjects and trip reports in depth and detail. Less is more stylistically. But I find this online epoch of social network communications to be at a point of diminishing returns.
Today was a top ten weather day of the year. And if you disagree, then you probably should not be living in New England. The weather simply does not get any better.
My ride today was a combo trip to North Conway. A Bear Notch Road Loop has been on my mind all season. And I was in need of a reputable shop that could mount Dynafit bindings. I dropped off my Fischer Watea 94s and Vertical 12s to be mounted at Ragged Mountain Equipment and proceeded to the public parking area on River Road to begin my ride.
This web site started out as nothing more than a collection of trip reports. My ego page began primarily to catalog skiing experiences for personal reference. A secondary goal was that by sharing my own reports, I might then learn about conditions from the reports of others. As the internet began to expand and develop, a growing community of skiers would hopefully share this vision of reporting actual conditions online instead of relying upon ski area reports.
But that was not enough. I desired professionalism and a slick web site with extensive cataloging and tagging to better sort and search through my reports for reference. Simply reporting on my skiing experiences was not enough. My investment into the activity had grown. Skiing had become an essential aspect of my life. A life that took a hard right when I decided skiing was more important than anything else. It became a way in life.
TheSnowWay.com was born. Combining the non-religious philosophical learnings of Taoism with the stuff that makes skiing possible, the naming was deeply personal rather than analytically based on maximizing Google search result positioning or attracting new readers. The tag line was a dare, an invitation, a challenge. A statement of consequence, preference, and personal significance. And sometimes… a reminder. What is your way in life?
Skiing was no longer just about the turns. It was fully integrated into the fabric of my being. But posts on this web site continued to be mostly trip reports about conditions. Descriptive words and pretty pictures. And just like most trip reports, lacking in deeper personal meaning. Occasionally a particular day struck a chord and stream of consciousness took over the writing effort with illusions to something profound and personal. But generally the reports have been a steady blow-by-blow detailing read-between-the-lines powder quests.
Recent posts might suggest a certain change in tone or direction. That this site is becoming less trip report and more weblog. That I will be inserting myself more fully and sharing my view on the world in a take it or leave it fashion. This will be less about the trip report and more about what I personally found valuable about the outing. What inspires me. How I see the world and how I prefer to live my life.
This site is about my way in life. I hope you continue to find it valuable for the trip reports and pretty pictures. Perhaps you might also find it valuable for other reasons as well. I hope the reading is less passive and more engaging. Less static information, more dynamic reflection. Less about what happened, more about why it is important.
The title for this post has been sitting in my draft queue for over a year and a half. Yesterday’s post regarding Sacrifices is a great segue into this post regarding what others might label “luck”. As in, “you are so lucky to score that powder day!” or “you are so lucky to be able to dawn patrol!” or “you are so lucky to live so close!”.
Bull shit.
The string of words “you are so lucky…” makes me cringe. Putting aside my deterministic opinions, suggesting that my being in the right place at the right time for the right event is somehow “lucky” fails to place proper consideration on the planning and mindfulness to position myself accordingly. Luck fails to consider the sacrifices and strategy involved with being in the right place at the right time for the right event. It also fails to consider that I get skunked sometimes, too. But that is not being unlucky. That is just the nature of the beast.
It is wonderfully and absurdly ironic to see the world from a deterministic perspective yet still approach life from a focused and mindful perspective of illusionary conscious decision making. It is not destiny, it is not pre-determined, and it is not luck. I put myself at the top of an untracked run on a mid-week powder vacation day through a lifetime of decisions that could not have unfolded any other way.
And on the other so called “unlucky” days, I get skunked. And sometime during the last few years, I forgot to appreciate that as well.
In either case, Amor fati. A fitting motto for this season especially. And of course, life in general. And you can keep your luck.