On July 25 I had a total replacement of my left knee. I knew I wanted to have the surgery so I woud be healed with good strength and balance before the first snowfall, before ice coated sidewalks and streets returned. Ya, well that was a real smart decision! I am so glad my new knee is almost four months old.
The snow came yesterday - it began as sleet - then about two inches of beautiful white snow covered the layer of ice. This morning I left the house before 9:00 to pick up a friend to join him for church. His congregation was hosting a US Citizen who migrated from the Sudan in 2004 who was speaking about his first trip back to his home village since he left it about 17 years ago.
Walking and driving were both challenging. The ice looked like frozen milk! And it is SO treacherous. Vanity went right out the window. I wore my winter fleece lined snow boots with deep cut tread that in the 1970's would have qualified them to be official "waffle stompers." I didn't even think twice, safety was all that mattered! Most of the people at church also wore sensible footwear - at least those over the age of 50!
Then this afternoon my friend and I went to the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts for final performance of the world premiere of the opera, Silent Night. The sidewalks downtown were even more dangerous because the sun was melting the surface of the ice. My friend and I clung to each other as we did the the "Old Man Shuffle" made famous by Tim Conway on the Carol Burnett Show. We were in good company! Many of us heading to the Ordway would have made Tim Conway proud!
Oh, you are too young to know about the Conway's "Old Man Shuffle?" Well, there are critical elements necessary to successfully "do da shuffle": 1) Never pick up your feet 2) hang on to a friend or loved one tight enough to cause serious bruising on their arm 3) slide one foot then the other over the ice at a pace of no more than two inches per slide 4) do not look up, keep looking at your feet 5) pretend you are deaf if people behind you want to get around you cause you are shufflin' too slowly 6) grumble loudly that the the city did not do a better job of clearing the sidewalk 7) enter the Ordway, turn immediately into a sophisticated opera goer and go into immediate denial that you could have won the "Old Man Shuffle" contest had there been one today!
And what about the World Premiere of SILENT NIGHT? If someone managed to video my friend and I shufflin' to the Ordway and put it on YouTube, I really wouldn't care. Silent Night, the opera, was worth every teeth clenching, eyes glued on the sidewalk, shufflin' slide it took to get there! The cast and staging were astonishing, the script wrenching as it depicted the Scottish, French and German soldiers before and during the Christmas Eve Truce that illuminated the connections and intersections in their lives prior to the war. The human cost of war was profoundly presented.
When the curtain came down on the final scene a sense of the sacred was so present that it almost felt sacrilegious to applaud. It felt like I needed to be silent, still, very still and pray ... one person said it was like being in church. Another agreed. For me it was simply sacred and still is.
The snow came yesterday - it began as sleet - then about two inches of beautiful white snow covered the layer of ice. This morning I left the house before 9:00 to pick up a friend to join him for church. His congregation was hosting a US Citizen who migrated from the Sudan in 2004 who was speaking about his first trip back to his home village since he left it about 17 years ago.
Walking and driving were both challenging. The ice looked like frozen milk! And it is SO treacherous. Vanity went right out the window. I wore my winter fleece lined snow boots with deep cut tread that in the 1970's would have qualified them to be official "waffle stompers." I didn't even think twice, safety was all that mattered! Most of the people at church also wore sensible footwear - at least those over the age of 50!
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| Tim Conway "Old Man" Character |
Oh, you are too young to know about the Conway's "Old Man Shuffle?" Well, there are critical elements necessary to successfully "do da shuffle": 1) Never pick up your feet 2) hang on to a friend or loved one tight enough to cause serious bruising on their arm 3) slide one foot then the other over the ice at a pace of no more than two inches per slide 4) do not look up, keep looking at your feet 5) pretend you are deaf if people behind you want to get around you cause you are shufflin' too slowly 6) grumble loudly that the the city did not do a better job of clearing the sidewalk 7) enter the Ordway, turn immediately into a sophisticated opera goer and go into immediate denial that you could have won the "Old Man Shuffle" contest had there been one today!
And what about the World Premiere of SILENT NIGHT? If someone managed to video my friend and I shufflin' to the Ordway and put it on YouTube, I really wouldn't care. Silent Night, the opera, was worth every teeth clenching, eyes glued on the sidewalk, shufflin' slide it took to get there! The cast and staging were astonishing, the script wrenching as it depicted the Scottish, French and German soldiers before and during the Christmas Eve Truce that illuminated the connections and intersections in their lives prior to the war. The human cost of war was profoundly presented.
When the curtain came down on the final scene a sense of the sacred was so present that it almost felt sacrilegious to applaud. It felt like I needed to be silent, still, very still and pray ... one person said it was like being in church. Another agreed. For me it was simply sacred and still is.
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