Day 156: Great skiing; world conversations
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day 156
— Great skiing; world conversations
05-January-1972
(Mittwock—Wed.)
TRANSCRIPT
St.
Anton
A full day. St. Anton
skiing. Had a lesson. Good. The way it’s been working
is that in the morning, we work on our points and
then we go skiing in the afternoon. Today, we went
down the other side of Galzig and ended up past St.
Christoph and had to walk back.
It’s good to have this “ski-schooling” because, while
learning, you also ski a lot (practice) and also see
the different slopes.
Night. Listened to a discussion of the situation back
in Northern Ireland between two Catholic Irish
(young—they live in the middle of violence) and the
rest of us (including a British officer). I learned a
lot. I can’t say it was enjoyable because it left me
feeling very hopeless—with regards to a solution. I
sort of sympathize with the Catholics but not with
the violence.
REFLECTIONS
Skiing article. Here is an Internet article link to an article by DCSki columnist, John Sherwood. There is a lot of detail about their ski trip to St. Anton. If I knew, back in 1972, that I would be blogging in 2008, I suppose I would have written more detail in the journal. I love articles like Sherwood's that give a lot of practical info about travel places.
Great dinner conversation. I also remember this particular conversation at dinner. Remember, that our gasthaus housed mostly students (from all over Europe) who came for a ski vacation. In our gasthaus, we ate dinner at the same time, together. (It wasn’t a restaurant; think of a large private home where you had lodging and meals, just like a bed-and-breakfast.) So, at tonight’s dinner, we may have had some new students. There was a young Catholic couple from Northern Ireland and a young British soldier as well. Imagine the emotion behind the conversation, especially from the Irish couple, who perceived Britain as occupying their country. And the point of view of the British soldier who faced the violence. In those days, I believe, there was much more violence happening in Northern Ireland. It was a very powerful and emotional experience and conversation. If I remember correctly, the conversation was civil and nothing bad happened, but there was intense emotion present. I think the rest of us were trying to understand and discuss all of this. Of course, I didn’t agree with the use of violence. The thing to be learned here is that the emotion of each side is real and affects how things play out in real life. When you read about events (book-learning), you are naïve and don’t truly understand the feelings behind such conflicts. Being in the middle of that conversation was a learning experience.
John
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