Recognizing the Needs of Others

I'd like to thank all those who made it possible, seen and unseen for this opportunity to represent the ski community here in Gulmarg, Kashmire. I'm here to ski for a prominent film company and capture a piece of what it's like to heli ski here on the line of control between Kashmir and Pakistan. Besides shredding some amazing lines for the camera with only a short case of deli belly, I'm doing my best to express the collective commitment to seeing ourselves in those we think are so different and therefore creating compassion in a place divided. I have come to recognize that no matter how far one travels from home, we can still find our tribe and a feeling of home in the mountains. It sounds cliché but though these people may have brown faces, and speak a different language, it is easy to recognize that we all share a reverence for the landscape, the snow, and the majesty of these powerful mountains. Even on the other side of the world, I still see kids building backyard jumps and parents doing what it takes to take care of their families. Even the soldiers seem to have eyes that can see further than their guns can fire and I feel it is only a matter of time before we only recodnize our similarities instead of our differences on a grander scale.

Though I have not laid witness to much of what these people have seen, I do see a community reaching for balance and never ceasing to lend a hand when it is needed. The road to Gulmarg for instance is a bit treacherous. It requires chains and becomes increasingly narrow as the snow banks grow(10cm’s an hour since we’ve been here) yet everyone depends on the road as it is the only means of transport in and out of this mountain village. For that reason when one person gets stuck the entire road from giant buses packed to the roof with chickens to newly-weds up to touch snow for the first time to army vehicles housing heaps of armed soldiers, is at a standstill. When this happens however, it is not a blame game of what someone did wrong, but a “how can I help get that that person moving so that I can get to where I’m going. A momentary shift outside of one’s own needs creates a mega-force of action where all the sudden 20 sets of hands are working to get one car up the hill or out of the snow bank. And when things get moving again there's a shared celebration amongst everyone from military personal to civilians to the passengers in taxis from all over the world, regardless of language or the color of skin, or even gender. Heck I’m pretty sure no one around here had seen a women break out a shovel until Lel(the other athlete on the trip) took charge but collectively the road stays flowing.

What if this was how everything worked? Lets say we all have the same goal in mind, to get to the mountain top, to be happy; but we can’t personally achieve that without keeping those around us moving as well, taking the focus off our personal needs and putting it on the needs of the stranger in the next car ahead of us even with the bald tires and non-existent chains.

I watched myself personally shift from feeling grumpy and jet-lagged at the end of a long day to full exhilaration as we banded together to get car after car unstuck. With hands on bumpers, heads down sucking exhaust watching ski boots next to army boots next to slippers, dig into the slick snow all for one purpose; to get the road moving again.

So I suppose the lesson is this; Recognize the needs of others as equal or even more important to my own and focus on the task at hand to get US ALL to where we want to be. And what happens when we all get there? Well then, we celebrate!