The Power of Salt: Part One

I have a healthy fear of ice in the winter time…this is why.

I went to school in rural northern Michigan, in a town whose slogan was “Icebox of the Nation”. I think that slogan was adopted because it had set a record for the lowest winter temperature in the nation at some point…and to this day it still gets very cold there.

I was in the fifth grade when something happened that forever changed me. We were outside at recess time in the winter, playing a frozen game of basketball and trying to stay warm. During one play, the ball bounced wildly toward “out of bounds” so I quickly ran, intercepted it with a flying leap, and tossed it back into play…something I’d done a hundred times.

Only this time was different. As I landed on the court my foot hit black ice and I slipped completely, crashing down on my back and smacking my head against that hard January asphalt. I was knocked completely unconscious.

The next thing I knew, there were faces looking down at me. Their lips moved without sound, and slowly voices began to work through the ringing in my head.

“Eric…Eric…Eric!” I locked eyes with my friend Christian, who had a wide-eyed look of fear on his face. He was calling my name. “Eric!”

I tried to sit up and I did with a whimper. The world hurt. The world was ringing. The world was strange. The world was a strange blur of activity, and I knew nothing, nobody, and no reason for anything. I was badly concussed.

“You were crying, man.” I remember Christian telling me this, but I didn’t even know who Christian was, only that he was concerned that my “man card” was in danger of being challenged and revoked for supposedly crying. I didn’t care. What’s crying? Where am I?

I suddenly left everyone, nervous about being around these wide-eyed kids who kept talking and staring at me. I didn’t know who anyone was…I just had to get inside, away from people, and off of that icy, cold asphalt.

A little salt on that black ice would have kept me from falling….and some salty Christians keep souls in this world from falling, also.

To be continued…