Skating On Thick Ice...

I believe I have twisted my neck... It's such a funny image, to twist one's neck, sending me recollections of the possessed girl in the excorcist who could perform a 360 degree 'twist'... But my twist is not a Chubby Checker dance, it is simply a tight-muscle thing due to participating in an obscure youth group type sport... 'Ice Blocking...' I was neither prepared for it, nor was I too successful at it, but to let gravity suck us down a hot grassy slope, riding nothing but a block of ice, now that is livinig!!!

I just went to the park to write a poem and soak a little sunshine... Besides noticing that the most animated people were not those flying kites or playing frisbee with their dogs, but the negligent moms on their cell phones, I guess it was a mellow evening... I sat on the water side of the big hill in Gasworks Park, completely unaware of any Ice Blockers on the other side... The hill has a small bowl shape on its side, which I discovered amplifies phone conversations, but also my guitar... I played for an hour or so until I grew weary of the new FOLK STRINGS I put on my beach guitar... They make it sound like a kid's toy, though it really sounds like Beck's cheap twang sound as well...

So I hung out, wrote the poem, played guitar, etc... I even saw a friend, Lacey, and waved to her, telling her I was busy writing so she wouldn't have to ignore the friend she was with to come talk to me... When I was ready to go, I climbed the hill to check the giant sundial atop the hill's crown... Sure, I don't really know how to read it and know the time, but it brings out the Fred Flintstone in me... I was just beginning to descend the other side when strangeness greeted my eyes...




First, I saw a girl drawing a chalk line silhouette on the paved path before me... She had decorated it with flowers, which intrigued my artistic eye... Then I noticed a crowd standing around, in a semi-connected yet spectating way... Finally, I observed the block of ice laying in the grass... I still did not put it together at this point... I descended, and further down it hit me as I witnessed a few slabs launch and shoot down to the bottom... My grin widened...

Not having a block of my own, I stood near the group but not quite in its midst, in case they were exclusive or official... I casually asked what the hell they were doing, riding ice down the hill... They didn't really give a good answer except, "Would you like to try it?" That was the answer I wanted to hear... I cast my guitar and poetry bookbag aside, kicked off my shoes and shot the chute... Instantly I was on a hillside roller coaster with no brakes but the friction of my ass on the grass...

It's like riding on an inner tube in the snow, but more vulnerable... I gladly accepted the defenselessness in exchange for less cold and wet... Each block of ice had a towel on it, so as not to freeze the bum it carried... I laid upon a block the next time and felt like I had it down... I imagined strapping a block to each foot and skating away, not realizing I had begun to show off...



It was when I attempted to mount it like a skateboard that I went down the hard way... I love how we unconsciously teach ourselves to not be so full of it... I earned the 'Bruised Buffoon' award that time... I did manage to ride down the hill while crouching on my feet, only being thrown into the air when I tried to stand up near the bottom...

There is one element of risk which adds to the entire run... At the bottom is a fire hydrant, placed by the parks department for God knows what reason... I have never seen anyone collide with it, but it does really spice up the downhill activities!!! I haven't had a grass burn for years, I think... What a joy to be green skinned once again!!!



The experience reminded me of when it snowed five years before... I went to that very same park with several friends, and observed how people who never get snow play in a winter wonderland... Pots and pans were being used as sleds, and hefty bags or car hoods were called toboggans for a day... I vividly recall that some brilliant fellow brought an aluminum rowboat from the boatyard nearby... I got to be one of the first five or six people to descend in that beast, though more because I was brash and dumb rather than brave and intrepid...

So snow or shine, we find a way to have a blast... Mostly I just use the tools at hand to have good times... I guess because someone else brought all the ice, the blocks became those tools at hand... I got to enjoy the best that spontaneous life has to offer, and it woke me up that moment... Of course, this happens so much more often than not, when I allow it... I am learning not even to qualify an experience with the question of whether I can write about it or not... The photos I posted here today are just pulled off the web to show what I am conveying... If I had had my handycam with me this day, I might have demolished it with a stupid stunt... Even so, I escaped with my body mostly intact... A jilted thumb and a sore neck is good payment for a new synapse to tickle my brain...

Even the final revelation at the end didn't taint the experience... I was resting amid the group, nearly ready to go, when I decided to probe in my journalism way... I wanted to know what knit the group together, as I am also thinking a lot about group dynamics and the various roles we all play in them... Groups have always been a challenge for me, and one that I may learn yet how to thrive in...

But suddenly three of the girls and I were in a little foursome, with the others more than twenty feet away... I could feel the atmosphere changing, from total freedom to, "How do we break the news to him?"... I resisted the urge to run as they revealed that they were a group of Latter Day Saints on an evening outing... My spidey sense going off was more old programs kicking off inside me, feeling cornered or dogmatically threatened... I forced myself to wake back up and stay present, after all, their whole thing is Christ, right? That should mean selfless love and enlightenment and lots more I couldn't begin to fathom... But to focus on the differences instead of the fact that we is all peeps wanting to have fun, well... That would hurt my body more than I could have if I hit the fire hydrant...

But I am still not so good with groups, and didn't have the natural resources to love three women at once who all meant to convert me to CMormonism, by the compassionate but predatory looks in their eyes... I thanked them for the ice rides and bid them all good evening, strumming my beach guitar as I walked home... I felt inclined to write the experience down, though waking up with the stiffness definitely reminded me to communicate the joy before all I had was neck pain... I wouldn't trade this day for any other!!! Although I realize now that I say this daily!!

Maybe someday we can all ice block down the hill of life with no creeds and beliefs to run into... Dogma burns worse than friction and blades of grass, especially when we cling to it more than we cling to the point it... It's just a random guess, but in my experience, all the sacred texts in the universe are different languages speaking the same simple word... Love is Love is Love is Love is Love, and everything else is just that... Beyond sitting on the ice block of love and riding down the hill of physical existence, there is nothing else but resistance to supernatural laws... And anybody who's ever seen Star Trek knows that resistance is futile!!!