Saturday, January 4, 2020

Solid Gold

Welcome to the first weekend of the new decade!  Two work days and a weekend already?  Show of hands:  Who already likes this decade more than the last one?  OK, put your hand down.  Let us talk again on this subject when this decade has lost some of its "new decade" smell.  

If you have a quiet moment or two today, then you might want to sit with your cup of coffee (or whatever your beverage of choice may be) and read this story on American figure skater Gracie Gold that appeared in a recent edition of the New York Times.  

Full disclosure demands that I come clean about just how much I know about the sport of figure skating, which is next to nothing.  I do have a very vague memory of Debi Thomas training at CU for a brief period of time in preparation for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.  I have seen "The Cutting Edge" with Moira Kelly and D.B. Sweeney.   We have now discussed in detail the sum and substance of my figure skating knowledge. 

I was entirely unfamiliar with Gracie Gold until I read the piece in the Times.  I came away very impressed - and not simply because of her prowess on the ice.  Her willingness to publicly discuss a very personal struggle with her mental health may prove to be her legacy, irrespective of the gold medals she has won and may still win.  

She has walked a path through her own personal hell and emerged on the other side...at twenty-four.  

-AK 

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