Unplug to enjoy life'€™s simple pleasures

We seldom think about how dependent society is on technology.

We use it to do our jobs, cook our food, for entertainment. Even a large percentage of our schoolwork is dependent on computers. In this age of innovation, exploration and invention we often lose sight of the other pleasures: those traditions that our parents’ parents passed down, like snowball fights, board games or skating. As we grow and technology slowly inundates our lives we begin to see such pursuits as childish, forgetting that no matter what your age you can still have fun.

For almost as long as the community of Glacier View has existed, kids of all ages have skated on Pearl Pond, tucked discretely behind the north side of a small hill on Victory Road. My siblings, friends, community members, and those high school students I thought were so cool when I was little, all have learned or continued to learn how to skate on this modest pond.

So, when the power went down for 15 hours on Oct. 29, it was the perfect excuse. After school, 13 local youths — homeschooled, public schooled and old-schooled — assembled on the frozen edge of the pond, built a bonfire and reveled in the first skating expedition of the year. It was the perfect opportunity to avoid the tedious computer work that plagues many a student. It was windy, it was cold, it was dark, but it didn’t matter.

I have always found a great sense of freedom in skating, despite the uncomfortable footwear and necessarily miserable conditions. It goes far beyond the motions of gliding across the ice on two pieces of metal riveted to shoes. It is, to me, an almost religious experience. It is the feel of sharp turns, crossing your skates skillfully so you do not slide out of control. It is that moment when you tilt the edge just right, or pull off that maneuver you thought forever beyond your ability. It is a wondrous feeling to know that you are moving over water, and that what would normally be impossible to walk or move over has become a source of exercise and entertainment.

As the night continued on, most of the revelers drew closer to the fire, drinking cider and talking. Soon my friend and I were the only ones still carving the scratched and pitted ice. The wind could not touch me, the cold could not chill me and life was good. Then, as if the night was not perfect enough, the moon showed her face through the spruce trees that crown the hill behind the pond. Wisps of cloud swirled around the glowing orb like strands of Artemis’s pearlescent hair, and the soft light played across the snowy trees like a benevolent smile. Minutes later the clouds once more obscured the ageless face.

All too soon the fire smoldered down to embers, the cider was gone and one by one my friends departed, headed back to the darkness of their homes. The surface of Pearl Pond was left scarred, chipped and crisscrossed by countless skate tracks, its beauty unmarred by the distortion of its surface. But, for a few hours the youth were able to escape the darkness in the company of their peers.

For our generation life has been based almost wholly on technology and electricity. We would be a generation lost and confused without the luxuries, small and great, that technology affords. But some still remember, and it’s those people who always have lanterns and candles within easy reach, who have a 5-gallon jug of water in their basement, just in case, and have a few sets of skates collecting dust in the closet.

Christopher Martin is a junior at Glacier View School.