Resilience

     I read an article in the New York Times today suggesting three things one could do to maintain resilience in life.    Or perhaps to increase your ability to cope with the vagaries of modern living.   This struck me as a topic geezer skiers might be interested in.  I'll confess the many distractions of my life lately have limited my attention to this blog.   Perhaps this piece will atone for my neglect.

    The upshot of the above mentioned article is that there are three major elements to maintaining resilience.  In summary they are:

1.  Having a purpose and a meaning for your life.  Something that attracts your attention.

2.  Having a community of some sort.  As we know there are all kinds of communities from employment, to religious, to volunteer, to hobbies and so on.  Certainly the geezer skier crowd is a community of note for those of us who have a continuing passion for the thrills of downhill skiing.

3.  Maintaining balance.   This is an interesting element in the sense that balance can have a multitude of meanings.  Certainly in the physical sense related to skiing, balance has many elements.  Of course in the broader sense balance has many other dimensions.   In our social life I think of balance as being open to a variety of social groups and interactions.   For me, I am grateful to continue to be able to move between academic, religious, family and volunteer communities.   Of course, family provides many opportunities for other interactions.  While I think I do a pretty good job with maintaining balance, my wife may think otherwise because I have a proclivity to spend too much time on crossword puzzles and other types of word puzzles.   Fortunately we share solving some of the same type of word puzzles.

    As to resilience relating to my local geezer skier community, I am indebted to their support and camaraderie both during the season and beyond.  It is a gift to all of us that we can share tragedies and triumphs in our lives.   In the balance during the ski season we spend a significant amount of time together, but in the rest of the year we spend more time refreshing our interactions with other groups.  Maybe fishing, maybe golf, maybe tennis or maybe traveling.

    As we move into Autumn, it is time to enjoy the dregs of summer, view the beauty of the color the leaves,  have the last few barbecues, and for the ski community, dream of the snow to come that will bless us with an extraordinary ski season.  Meanwhile, lets fight to slow climate change!