Passionately Golden Dreams

Every Thursday at 4 PM. It sounded easy enough in December, so what the hell I thought the kid L-O-V-E-S skating --every Thursday would be fine. In order to faciliate this activty I have altered my Thursday schedule so that I now arrive before the security guy does, do my work when there is almost no one around and then leave at 1:30PM so I can meet Sophie outside of school. From there we go to the house, eat a small snack and the get her "equipment" on. That's right, equipment. Sophia is taking ice skating very seriously these days, as such every accesory is of utmost importance, not to mention necessary. The last time she took lessons (level 1) she was cool with jeans, sweater and a pair of fleece gloves. That was last year. Level 2 has naturally elevated her "game", and in doing so has passed the cost of her "game" on to me and her mother.

Her equipment now is no less than the figure skates, the dress, the tan panty-hose (the kind that cover the skate down to the blade), her wool gloves, complete with faux feathering along the wrist, and finally her matching scrunchy to tie back her hair. Of course after all this she certainly "looks" the part; realizing full well that she may be more in love with the fashion than the sport. Still, this is OK because reagardless of her motives, she's nothing if not passionate for what she is doing. Passion. This is what any endeavor is ALL about, and I told her that so long as she has it, she'll have lessons. Because for me it's all about the love; if she loves what she's doing I love her doing it, I care little if it's skating, ballet or tee-ball. Just love it. And boy does she, almost too much, as I have to peel her from the ice at the end of class.

She lives for Thursdays, as she knows it's all about her for an hour, and of course me watching her, and her spins, her dips, her cross over and oh yes--her falls too. Of course I should mention also that she isn't just "another pretty face", she's actually quite good. She took to ice skating immediately when about three years ago I decided to do something other than a movie after reading an article about a rink oepning in S. Florida. At first she wasn't to keen on the "ice", and truth be told, I hadn't been on it for at least 12 years. We warmed up quick enough and before you know we were in the flow of over-sexed teenagers skating along to what seemed like the 8th grade dance DJ. I told myself that night that Fridays probably aren't the night we should skate. I couldn't ever remember teen-agers being so overt about sex and sexuality, at least not when I was at Skateland in Brookhaven in the late seventies. Suffice to say I made a mental note of this, and Sophie won't be skating on Friday nights.

I digress. Suffice to say Sophia progressed quickly, so I signed her up for lessons. The rest, as they say is......well you know the rest. So now here we are three years down the road, and she's changed. Wants to watch ice-skating on TV, loves any Disney movie regarding little girls and ice skating. So the other day we made our pilgrmage twenty miles south to the ICE ZONE in Lake Worth, itself a study in pushy parents and pudgy kids. (More on that later)
After leaving she said to me that the teacher said the girls in the Olympics today were Sophia's age less than ten years ago, and that they too could be the next Olympic skater. She could, yes I agreed with her,I told her she could also be a hundred other things that I would be just as proud of her for too. So last night we both got comfortable on the couch, broke out the ice cream and watched the opening ceremony. I knew full well that this will be the first Olympics she remembers, just like 1972 was for me. She watched intently, almost mesmorized by the stunning visually rich show. As I watched her I thought how quickly she'd be that 16 year-old, and maybe she would be an Olympic skater, why not right? This is probably how it happens, girl takes gymnastic or skating class, girl sees girls a little older than herself on TV realizing their full potential doing what girl already loves, girl becomes inspired, motivated and re-applys herself towards the ultimate dream.

Well we'll see, I'm not getting too ahead of myself am I? Actually, maybe not since her coach Alexei Ulanov is himself an Olympic gold medalist, something I've never met until Sophia took lessons. So why not allow her to dream a "big" dream, if she wants it she's got a good start--she loves the sport, her coach is a gold medal winner and she has passion. So it all begins now in Torino and we're excited. Afterall, the Olympics are the only event that the whole world watches in unison, a warming thought in such troubled times. I thought of that too, and that probably somewhere in Russia Sophia's rival was watching with her Papi too, with the same dream. Isn't this what's so great about being a kid? You have SO many dreams, and SO many possibilities-- and the time in which to foster and realize both if you have the encouragement, and even more importantly-- the PASSION.