Maxed Out

"Said the night wind to the little lamb, do you see what I see... said the night wind to the little lamb, do you see what I see... said the night wind to the little lamb, do you see what I see...." "I think I see it Al. It's in the back field.

It was a slow day and I was in a Christmas funk. The hope of November had finally melted away in the rains of December and all that was left was the faintest of wishes for a hail-Mary snowstorm, if that's not torturing a metaphor beyond endurance.

Well, I guess the good news is it isn't exactly a stellar start to the season elsewhere. Oh sure, Aspen says it's 100 per cent open... with a 15 inch (38 cm) mid-mountain base! Of course, that's a whole inch more than Snowmass.

As we approach the season to be jolly, I like to think I can dispel the negative thoughts and stresses accompanying it and generate, in their place, kind visions of peace on earth and goodwill towards men, women and, if pushed, high-stress tourists.

Imagine what it would be like if Christmas were more like Easter, which is to say not attached to a fixed date. Suppose December 25th was a possible but not certain date for Christmas.

People often claim one of the unique aspects of this town is the fact almost everyone who lives here has chosen to live here. On the face of it, that sounds, well, facile.

"Yoooo, Duuude!" Having contemplated the universe's duality through the Zen koan about the sound of one hand clapping, I immediately recognized the sound of one voice laying waste to solitude... my solitude.

"Y ou can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. " So saith Honest Abe Lincoln, or maybe not. No one seems to be certain.

"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." Barry Goldwater said those words in the 1964 U.S. presidential campaign. They were the opening salvo of the conservative revolution.

If you believe in God and the literal word of the bible — and it's not my intention to get into any long, drawn-out debate on the issue — then travelling through southern Utah has to leave you with the inescapable suspicion that God must