Whether you know what curling is or not, you would be curious about what the above sentence means. At least, you must be if you got this far. I know little about the sport but what I do know is that there must be something about a couple of folks, men or women, frantically sweeping the ice in front of one heavy object moving in slow motion, having been released by the third player whose role it is to begin the game, followed by a crescendo of screaming and hollering at the last second or so of the action.
Why curling? Because, believe it or not, there is no other Olympic event, winter sport or not, that is closest to the metaphor of life. Really? Yes, really.
Why curling? Because, believe it or not, there is no other Olympic event, winter sport or not, that is closest to the metaphor of life. Really? Yes, really.
But, how popular is curling in the U.S.A? The quote below says it all:
"America Loves Curling — Until It Forgets About It For Four Years"
It is 100 deg F (37.78 deg C to my European and Asian readers) in the shade outside and what better way to divert one's attention from the oppressive July heat in Texas than to imagine about winter in Canada or Scandinavia. I have not been to either place in winter, so the more an imaginary arctic blast can be summoned for relief. Just about now, I feel cooler already.
But first, this. Even if you think you know the rules of curling, you need to read the paragraph below, then ignore it, and read the one following for a layperson's explanation.
"At the start of each end, two rocks start in play — one in the back 4 foot with the front of the rock at the very center of the house, and a rock of the opposite color guarding on the center line, halfway between the front of the house and the hog line. Five rocks are played per team, with scoring performed as normal. One thrower must throw the first and last stones of each end, while the other thrower must throw the three in between".
The playing surface is a sheet of ice (that is why it is a winter sport) 5 meters wide and 45 meters long. The object of the game is to get a 20 kilogram granite, called a curling stone, to slide over from one end of ice to reach and stop at a target, called a house, at the other end. The house is made up of three concentric circles, colored red, white and blue, and the center of it, the bull's eye, is called a button. The score of one point is awarded to the team whose curling stone is closest to the target, two points if two stones are closest, etc. It has innings like in baseball, and they are called ends, because, well, each starts from one end to the other and vice versa. A complete game will take between 2 to 2-1/2 hours.
There's more nomenclature, nuances and technicalities in the game but we don't need to know them all; except, for the curious part about the sweepers! There is a point to all this for the allusion to work, as it relates to the metaphor of curling and life.
There was an article in the Smithsonian, explaining the physics behind the sweeping. Let's journey through time in the 1500's when folks in Scotland, with not much to do in the winter time, invented the sport. It was before the era of gymnasiums and refrigeration, so it was played outdoors, where the ice surface had irregularities on them. There were bumps, called pebbles, along the playing area causing the stone to "curl" as it slides toward the target, and there you have the origin for the name of the sport.
Today, "Ice technicians sprinkle two layers of water droplets on top of the ice that freeze to form two heights of bumps"... "Pebbling was designed to mimic the natural snow and pebbles that were on the ice when curling was played outside".
So, as the stone is released, the sweepers ahead of it, sweeps the ice and the friction causes the ice to melt temporarily but long enough to allow for a film of water on which the stone can travel more freely . There is a strategy to sweeping. Depending on where the sweeps are done ahead of the stone, the direction and speed of the stone can be "controlled". One team member of the usual four, called the "skip" may direct the sweepers what to do. That's curling.
Imagine, we are the stones traveling along the path of life. Whatever our stations in life, privileged by birth, or plagued by misfortunes of destitution and abject poverty, we are all equally driven by desire to get somewhere - a target position of more wealth and prestige or merely a place a little more comfortable or a little less wanting of the basic necessities of life, and perhaps a yearning for a just a little bit more than what we have now. Whatever the place we dream about, the path may not always be smooth. It could be a little rough for some, more pebbly or discouragingly rocky for others. Just as in the sport, there are "ice technicians" sprinkling layers of obstacles in our path. The ice technicians could be other people not wanting us to succeed or circumstances we find ourselves in, that we need to to overcome. But we were not to be deterred from reaching the place.
If we're fortunate to reach that place, we look back and realize that as we sled through much of the journey, someone or many others had swept the ice in front of us. Parents were the first sweepers in front of their children's path for years before sons and daughters realize the amount of energy, worry and anguish it took to get those brooms working. What little they know how frantic at times their parents had to sweep in front, sometimes hollering and screaming, because they didn't want them to go astray of that "5-meter-wide-lane". There are two sweepers in curling, one to each side of the stone. A single sweeper faces the daunting task of single parenting. Doing the sweeping from either side of the stone is twice as hard and the rare but laudable successes of single parents deserve twice the acclaim.
Later we found friends, teachers, colleagues, bosses who did their share of sweeping in front of our path as well. And so have we for others. We think back of all the many events, the words of encouragement, the inspirations, a recommendation here and there, a pat on the back, the seeming coincidences that pop out of nowhere, improbable opportunities from unlikely places, not all of them deserved, perhaps, but it got us to the place - the "three concentric circles" of our ambitions and dreams. If we did not reach the "button" exactly, close enough is good enough.
Thus, the metaphor of life we find in curling is true for everyone. We need to recognize and thank all the sweepers in our path. We take pride of the sweeping we've done for others, and remember that the world could use a lot more sweepers out there.
The playing surface is a sheet of ice (that is why it is a winter sport) 5 meters wide and 45 meters long. The object of the game is to get a 20 kilogram granite, called a curling stone, to slide over from one end of ice to reach and stop at a target, called a house, at the other end. The house is made up of three concentric circles, colored red, white and blue, and the center of it, the bull's eye, is called a button. The score of one point is awarded to the team whose curling stone is closest to the target, two points if two stones are closest, etc. It has innings like in baseball, and they are called ends, because, well, each starts from one end to the other and vice versa. A complete game will take between 2 to 2-1/2 hours.
There's more nomenclature, nuances and technicalities in the game but we don't need to know them all; except, for the curious part about the sweepers! There is a point to all this for the allusion to work, as it relates to the metaphor of curling and life.
 |
| There's the broom, differently colored curling stones and the "house", made of concentric circles of red, white and blue bands, where the center, or button, is the desired target or bull's eye. |
 |
| An opponent's stone (blue) is occupying the red target already as the red stone is approaching while two sweepers are frantically sweeping, influencing the direction and speed of the stone - the idea being to hit and dislodge the blue stone from its location, which happens to be the desired target. The key is to hit the blue (in this case) stone with just enough energy to push it out but for the red stone to stop and rest at the target |
There was an article in the Smithsonian, explaining the physics behind the sweeping. Let's journey through time in the 1500's when folks in Scotland, with not much to do in the winter time, invented the sport. It was before the era of gymnasiums and refrigeration, so it was played outdoors, where the ice surface had irregularities on them. There were bumps, called pebbles, along the playing area causing the stone to "curl" as it slides toward the target, and there you have the origin for the name of the sport.
Today, "Ice technicians sprinkle two layers of water droplets on top of the ice that freeze to form two heights of bumps"... "Pebbling was designed to mimic the natural snow and pebbles that were on the ice when curling was played outside".
So, as the stone is released, the sweepers ahead of it, sweeps the ice and the friction causes the ice to melt temporarily but long enough to allow for a film of water on which the stone can travel more freely . There is a strategy to sweeping. Depending on where the sweeps are done ahead of the stone, the direction and speed of the stone can be "controlled". One team member of the usual four, called the "skip" may direct the sweepers what to do. That's curling.
_________________________
Imagine, we are the stones traveling along the path of life. Whatever our stations in life, privileged by birth, or plagued by misfortunes of destitution and abject poverty, we are all equally driven by desire to get somewhere - a target position of more wealth and prestige or merely a place a little more comfortable or a little less wanting of the basic necessities of life, and perhaps a yearning for a just a little bit more than what we have now. Whatever the place we dream about, the path may not always be smooth. It could be a little rough for some, more pebbly or discouragingly rocky for others. Just as in the sport, there are "ice technicians" sprinkling layers of obstacles in our path. The ice technicians could be other people not wanting us to succeed or circumstances we find ourselves in, that we need to to overcome. But we were not to be deterred from reaching the place.
If we're fortunate to reach that place, we look back and realize that as we sled through much of the journey, someone or many others had swept the ice in front of us. Parents were the first sweepers in front of their children's path for years before sons and daughters realize the amount of energy, worry and anguish it took to get those brooms working. What little they know how frantic at times their parents had to sweep in front, sometimes hollering and screaming, because they didn't want them to go astray of that "5-meter-wide-lane". There are two sweepers in curling, one to each side of the stone. A single sweeper faces the daunting task of single parenting. Doing the sweeping from either side of the stone is twice as hard and the rare but laudable successes of single parents deserve twice the acclaim.
Later we found friends, teachers, colleagues, bosses who did their share of sweeping in front of our path as well. And so have we for others. We think back of all the many events, the words of encouragement, the inspirations, a recommendation here and there, a pat on the back, the seeming coincidences that pop out of nowhere, improbable opportunities from unlikely places, not all of them deserved, perhaps, but it got us to the place - the "three concentric circles" of our ambitions and dreams. If we did not reach the "button" exactly, close enough is good enough.
Thus, the metaphor of life we find in curling is true for everyone. We need to recognize and thank all the sweepers in our path. We take pride of the sweeping we've done for others, and remember that the world could use a lot more sweepers out there.
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