Feelin' Alright In the 21st Century

I'm sorry if I'm sounding like a stuck record, but my crew enjoyed another Great Night
last night!

My rookies don't know how great they've got it! My formative years in snowcats should have been so divine!

If today's rookies had to endure my rookie years, I wouldn't have a crew today! The hassles we endured back in "The Good Old Days" are so far removed from the supposed travails of today's 21st Century Grooming Realities as to put a coda on disbelief.

Today, Grooming has become just another instant gratification transaction in the New Paradigm...business as usual in our Post-Modern Societal Construct, where perceived reality carries more weight than actual blood and guts reality.

Here in the 21st Century West, everything has become automatic...too predictable...nothing that matters fails anymore. Most outlying anomalies have been mitigated. Success is assured, failure is almost foreign in the West today. The playing field is tilted...in favor of success now.

The New Paradigm is still just a construct...an illusion, if you will. Comfortable in the abstract, but not reliably concrete...Failure is still an option...and more often than not, it is the result of our Western success lulling us into complacency. Yet today, it's easier than ever to bank on the false security of the West's powerhouse dominance to put our fears to rest.

Thirty years ago, when I was a Rookie, the mountain usually held the upper hand. On the rare occasion that we were in the driver's seat, invariably our fleet would betray us. Every night was like Sir Edmund Hillary gazing up at Mt Everest from 3000 feet below Camp One.

Night in and night out, we set out to tame the Mountain..."because it was there"...on our best nights, we fought Mother Nature to a draw.

Today, the tables have turned...the field of battle is truly level, though when Mother Nature is aroused, there isn't much we can do to dominate her.