Week 13 Story: The Great Race

One brisk December day in the northern providence of British Columbia. There was set to be a great ski race, between two of the country’s greatest skiers. Anna was the best skier British Columbia had ever seen, she was younger and did not have much big race experience. Jennifer was an Olympic gold medalist for Canada as well had many other medals under her belt. On the line of the race was acceptance to the following years Canadian Olympic team, as well the recognition of being the best.

Anna was very nervous, as she knew she was fully possible of winning but still had small reserves of doubt. She had watched Jennifer her entire life fly down the mountains, taking medal after medal. Jennifer on the other hand had confidence through the roof, thinking of this as just another race. They decided to meet up two days before the race for coffee at the base of the mountain. As they say at the bottom of the run they conversed about there own experiences and where they came from to get where they were today. Jennifer was taken back by the drive the young Anna had, and her look on the idols and mentors she looked up to such as herself.

The race day was upon the small town in British Columbia and the base of the slope was packed with a rowdy audience. Some with signs for Jennifer and some for Anna, the two women looked down upon the crowd and for some reason this race felt different. Both racers were fond of each other and both wanted the other to win. Each kept saying I am going to fall and let you win because you are the best. Finally, after countless threats of forfeiting they agreed to ski down together hand in hand and cross the finish line together.

(The picture above is of an alpine ski race. Picture Source: Ski Race)

Author’s Notes

The original story I based “The Great Race” over was Arjuna’s Dilemma.In the story above I told a tale where one would normally think a race can only end one way. But Anna and Jennifer showed that a race can end in peace and a tie. In the Indian story a battle is about to take place between an army commanded by Bheeshma fighting an army protecting Bheema.  Arjuna goes out in between the two armies and looks upon the opposite army. He is taken back and second guesses his god on why they are fighting. Because the uncles, sons, grandfathers that are on the other side are giving up their lives and wealth to Fight. Then the rest of the story he tries to convince the lord Krishna not to fight, And when it comes time to fight he says it would be better if the sons of Dhritaraashtra would kill me with their weapons in battle while I am unarmed, So he goes to the middle of the battle field and sets down his bow  and takes a seat in his chariot over whelmed. What I took from this story was that if violence is the only route out of a situation, you can still be your own person and choose peace instead. This can be made into a possible story for later stories in this class.