Dues.....

Several years ago, I was skiing “off the jacket,” (not on ski patrol duty), and riding up a chairlift on Snoqualmie Pass-- when I noticed a group of striking elderly men, still straight and graceful, all skiing in single file, all dressed totally in white, all carving nicely linked, expert turns one right after the other....

“What the devil,” I muttered, turning around to watch them as they passed under me.

They were headed for a sort of flat area, where I noticed several tables being set up and a small crowd of people milling around. I got off the chair and dropped quickly down off the main face to get to the flat area, to see what was going on. I soon discovered that the men in white were survivors of the U.S. Army’s WWII 10th Mountain Division! Put together by Minnie Dole, the founder of the National Ski Patrol, The storied 10th Mountain – an infantry unit made up of ski patrollers, ski instructors, mountain guides, and lumberjacks – passed into history for its brilliant and valiant efforts in the Italian campaign during WW II, and is still in existence today – based in Ft. Drum, New York, and carrying the brunt of the burden in Afghanistan. I was thrilled to the core.

As I rode up the chair with one of the 10th Mountain veterans, a lean fellow from Colorado with a full head of white hair, I turned and said to him:

“This is great! You guys have been my heroes forever!”

“Well,” he said, fastening his clear blue eyes on me, “I don’t know about being a hero, but I’m just so, so grateful to be here, to just be able to come up here and still ski! Just so grateful that I can still do it.” He then told me that he was eighty years old.

“Damn,” I said, glancing around. “All you 10th guys look pretty good! In shape and solid!”

“Yes,” he said. “Skiing is something an old fellow like me can do for a long, long time...almost forever...long as he’s willing to pay his dues!”

“Dues? What are the dues?”

The old warrior grinned at me. “Constant exercise and constant smart living... only way to pay your dues up here, son.....only way.”

I’ve never forgotten that conversation with that brave old warrior. I am sixty seven now, and have already had a full and good life. But I am not ready to be done, not just yet, not just yet, and I am ready and willing to pay and keep paying my dues, pay them to that inevitable last, breathtaking ride, to the inevitable last, heart-hammering ski run, to the day that someone bends down and closes my eyelids for me. And I hope that when he does, I will have a smile on my parted lips, with the flush of life and blood still in my cheeks.... God, I love living! It won’t last forever, but I plan to wring every last drop of joy and love and adventure out of every passing moment!

Here are my dues:
-Twice a week, I climb, winter or summer, a 1700' mountain trail here near my home.... I have two or three routes to choose from
-Three times a week (when not climbing), I walk 3 miles to meet my wife at her school, and then three miles back with her...
-Two times a week, I lift weights, with light weight and slow, high repetitions, according to the following menu:
- Squats (3X10 plus); leg extensions (3X10 plus)
- Bench Press (3X10 plus)
- Bent-over Dumbbell rows (3X10 plus)
- Elastic tube pull across and pull aways, for my rotator cuffs, (3X20plus)
-During the weekends, in the summer I go for a long hike; in winter, I ski Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday......
- I quit smoking before 1970, and quit all alcohol in 1989...

With this regimen, I hope to be skiing and riding a motorcycle, and more importantly, loving my wife, my son, and all our friends and family, until I’m eighty or more. It may not pay off that much, I may die in my sleep tonight, or be hit by another deer and die tomorrow.....but then again, pay off it might! In the meantime, I’ll pay my dues and drink deep of everything life offers!