Snow shoes

I was trudging through the snow today, working on my speed, when I noticed some other folks trudging through as well. They weren’t going very fast, and I quickly caught up to them. They seemed amazed at how fast I was able to run in the snow. I offered to teach them some techniques and they seemed genuinely interested so I took a little from the book of Taoism and taught them about the principles of action through non-force. When walking through the snow, the worst thing to do is try to force the snow with the length of your legs. It is much easier, if you have the energy, to jump a little and push it to the sides with only your feet. There is less resistance, and therefore less to keep you from moving forward. I also showed them how I added some cardboard and string contraptions to my shoes, effectively making them snowshoes. They seemed baffled that it helped me trudge, but I tried to teach them a little about distributive weight. They seemed to get it in the end, if only because they tried it and found that it worked. Either way they seemed really interested in what I had to say, and in the interest of not being cliquey I decided to invite them to my Tuesday meetings. They said they’d definately be there, joking that there was nothing better to do in this place. I guess I can’t argue with that. Talking about things on your mind is often a great thing to do, and that’s what our meetings are about!

On their way away from our meeting place, one of the men mentioned with a chuckle that now he wouldn’t have to pee a clear path. In the interest of future glasses of snow-water, I memorized the path he came by…