journal features

skating with my family

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2012.01.08

Mari's pregnant and can't go out on the ice, and I never learned to skate*, but today we took Kenny skating.

We met with some friends that I haven't seen for several months, as well as our downstairs neighbours. Kenny made it around the rink three times, which Mari says is a record. For the final lap, he had the assistance of a wobbly support frame which allowed us to go faster. I'm amazed at the stuff he's learned to do. Thanks to his mum!

It's interesting how things native residents come to take for granted. In this case, Mari and the two other mums—both of whom are originally from Asia but have lived in the US—agreed that the benefit of having an outdoor skating rink paid out of civic taxes is worth the nominal cost to residents. The two former US residents agreed that such things (e.g. the civic-funded swimming pool the three families attended in the summer) weren't available in the US and it was a detriment. Mari and the one Japanese-born mum noted that they didn't exist in Tokyo or Kyoto, either.

rand()m quote

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

—Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.