Family Story

A few winters ago, my aunt, uncle, brothers, and I went on a skiing road trip. My brothers and I were getting bored so we started talking about what we were going to do when we got there. My older brother stared talking about how he was going to snowboard down the biggest slopes right away. My aunt asked if he had snowboarded before and he said no. "But I'm a natural!" was how he replied with a convinced grin. She laughed and told him he was just like our dad.

When my dad first went skiing he found he could ski fairly well, or at least well enough to stay upright, and started showing off. Some guy saw him and said to my dad that anyone could ski on the bunny slopes and that he couldn't handle the larger slopes. My dad took the challenge and the two of them went to the top of a fairly steep slope. Luck prevailed, and my dad was able to get down the slope with ease, or at least looking like he had done so with ease.

Some people who had overheard them were at the bottom and congratulated my dad. He of course acted like it wasn't a big deal. The challenger wasn't impressed. He took my dad to a steeper slope and demanded he ski it with him. Again my dad was lucky enough to get down in one piece. Nonchalantly he asked if "that was all". They guy was pretty irritated that my dad was doing so well, so he took him to the steepest slope in the resort, so steep it was practically vertical.

A couple of the bystanders decided to try the slope too, all bursting with confidence seeing my dad, who had never skied before, do so well. They all gathered at the top and skied down. If you could call it skiing. Not only was this the steepest slope, it also had the most trees. People were crashing so often, they were more tumbling down than skiing. Things were still going well for my dad and a few other experienced people, but at the bottom of the slope was a huge puddle. Every skier slipped into it crashing at the bottom. Except my dad who had been going so fast, he skied over the puddle getting only the bottom of his pants wet. While he had every reason to gloat, he didn't find it wise to stay when there was a bunch of angry injured and wet skiers on his back.

My brother pointed out this seemed to support his theory that he could handle the slopes without prior experience. But my aunt reminded him that the other skiers weren't as lucky as my dad. And even if my brother was as lucky, he was also influencing my little bother and I who might not be as lucky. The moral of this story would be that even if your bad decisions won't necessarily hurt you, they might lead others to follow your actions and get hurt.