Enlightenment

On Thursday I had the pleasure of watching Ash get inducted into The Utah Community Foundation’s Enlightened Fifty Club, which, in their words: “recognizes fifty individuals who are making a measureable – but often unsung - difference in the lives of Utahns through innovation, collaboration and commitment to the common good.”   When she first told me that she had been nominated and chosen, I was a bit taken aback:  “’Enlightened?’  That’s a bit of a loaded term!” because it seems a bit lofty and perhaps a bit snobbish.  And ironically, it was at the venerable Alta Club downtown, which apparently only started allowing women in the building in the 80’s?!?! 

But regardless of the term - and they seemed to be preferring the term “E-five-oh” at the presentation – it was great to see Ash be included in a cadre of people that are both impressive and inspiring in what they’ve done for their communities.  It’s probably fair to say that the talent of these folks and the level of accomplishments would probably put them at the CEO level of many companies, but as it is they are making a fraction of their private-sector counterparts yet, it may be argued that they are getting a lot “more”  ouf of their inspiring work than salaries can account for. Here’s the site with the list of folks:   http://utahcf.org/the-e-5-0/item/1362-congratulations-to-the-2013-e-50

Unfortunately they don’t have the paragraph that was read about each person; they were all really inspiring. 

And here they are:

Where's Waldo/Ashley?

Here’s the slide that was up when they were describing Ash and Wasatch Community Gardens:

 

And here’s the slide for our friend Lauren Scholnick, who’s been a fierce defender of employees’ rights:

 

And I wasn’t quite fast enough to get the slide for Lauren Barros, who has been an equally-strong voice for the lesbian/gay-parent community as well as many others in social justice litigations. 

Here’s the enlightened one, sporting her impressive lapel pin:

 

She was sort of hoping that this ceremony was going to convey upon her in one evening what these guys have spent a lifetime getting! 

 

Maybe next year the E-Five -Oh could convey some saffron robes?

Being generally devoid of any opportunity of public recognition of my own enlightenment, the next morning I went out for what invariably will be the last day of a great ski season with Colter and Tom McFarlane.  We headed up to the late-season icon of the Pipeline at Snowbird:

 

Somewhat challenging skinning and booting got us to the ridge above Little Cloud bowl, and then the broad summit of the American Fork Twins:

 

And then “deep” in this really nice line:

 

Colter finding his own enlightenment by kneeling in the snow:

 

Dropping in to the sick 2^nd to last snowpatch:

And now I just landed in Korea, where I’ll work for a few days before heading out on a bike tour that will incorporate at least some of the “Four Rivers Path”: a government-sponsored/built, relatively car-free bike route of 3-400 miles from Seoul to Pusan!  Should be an interesting adventure.