Ski for Light - What's in a Name

Editor's Note: Many thanks to Larry Showalter for passing along this lovely 2008 e-mail exchange between Linda Mumford and Bud Keith. I contemplated simply publishing the first paragraph of Bud's reply to Linda, but realized that the complete conversation is a wonderful encapsulation of why Ski for Light is so enduring: first, there's the inquiring mind of Linda Mumford wishing to know all she can about the foundations of Ski for Light. And then there is the late, much missed Bud Keith, who took the time to share his knowledge with Linda. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do; I know I will be thinking about it all through the last week of January 2015 out on the trails at Snow Mountain Ranch. - P.S.

I attended my first SFL event in 1998. I remember thinking at the time that Ski for Light was a strange name because the name gave no clue that it was an organization promoting cross-country skiing for disabled persons, and I wondered what it meant. Over the next ten years, I continued to wonder about Ski for Light's name, and finally, on May 23, 2008 I decided to find out by sending an email to Bud Keith and asking him. The very next day I received the following reply from Bud:

"Linda, The idea behind the name, Ski for Light, is somewhat complicated. Erling [Stordahl] was full of metaphors. Instead of focusing on blindness and the absence of light, he focused on the unknown and enlightenment. So, in looking at the Norwegian culture, he used or created a metaphor from Peer Gynt. In the legend, a Norwegian knight, the ridder part of ridderrenn, needed to escape some bad guys. He came to an abyss and not having any idea of whether he could safely make it, leaped with faith and succeeded. Erling equated this with the human struggle and pushed the need for us to try things where success was doubtful, and discover some previously unknown strength or ability within ourselves that help us succeed. It is the metaphorical struggle from ignorance to enlightenment. So in cross-country skiing, blind folks are enabled to ski from the ignorance of not knowing anything about the limits of our abilities to the enlightenment of learning that we can succeed at much more than we had ever imagined.

The first event using an English name was Race for Light. Oral Miller and I were the first two blind folks who insinuated ourselves into leadership for the second event. We both insisted that racing and hard training for a race might fit in the Norwegian culture, but it wouldn't fit in our culture for many reasons. We insisted on something more appropriate, so we switched to Ski for Light, keeping the idea of enlightening oneself regarding possibilities and deemphasizing the racing aspects.

Is that too much?"

No Bud, it is not too much, and I wish there could be more. May your memory be for a blessing.

Linda Mumford