Dancing On Thin Ice

If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance.
-unknown


Chris Bowman-1989 World Championships

Two men who's lives were connected with ice died yesterday and their lives couldn't have been more different. Sir Edmund Hillary, first man to make it to the top of Mount Everest, dead at age 88, and Chris Bowman, former world class figure skater and US Men's Champion, dead at age forty.

The New Zealand Herald described Hillary as "down to earth" while a man who knew Bowman said, "Christopher was always on." Maybe that is why one man died a world hero and the other under suspicion that his untimely death was drug related. One man was comfortable with the person he was while the other was not. One man's life expanded outward after that fickle finger of fame touched him while the other one's life collapsed inward. Did one man listen to his soul and the other not?

My first thought after hearing of Chris Bowman's death was, "Poor baby."

My first thought after hearing about Edmund Hillary was, "Ahh, God rest his soul."

Now I realize that Chris Bowman is the one who could use my prayer to God because Edmund Hillary's soul has always been at rest.

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