Jesus on Skates

 

It's coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees

They're putting up reindeer and singing songs of joy and peace
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on

But it don't snow here It stays pretty green
I'm going to make a lot of money
Then I'm going to quit this crazy scene
I wish I had a river I could skate away on...

River -- Joni Mitchell

49 Bless the Lord, ice and cold,
    sing praise to him and highly exalt him for ever.
50 Bless the Lord, frosts and snows,
    sing praise to him and highly exalt him for ever.

From the Book of Daniel in the Apocrypha 

We were walking along the shore of the Bay of Quinte not long ago and wondered when or if this signficant offshoot of Lake Ontario would freeze through the winter. During the pandemic we had a period of consistent cold that meant people were able to get out on the ice of the bay to skate, walk, cross-country ski. It was a wonderful respite from the dread which pervaded every aspect of life in the period before vaccinations. 

 

                                                       Dashing through the snow, Jerusalem style 

On that recent ramble I went on to wonder aloud whether Jesus had ever experienced ice and doubted he had.That may seem like an addled musing (Ruth puts up with a lot)  but it's likely that he at least saw snow in the distance when in Galilee. When we were in Israel back in April of this year we could see the snow cap on Mount Hermon, to the north, quite clearly. Many scholars figure that Hermon was the Mount of Transfiguration, so Jesus and the disciples who accompanied him may have slogged through the stuff. Jerusalem gets an occasional snowfall and in 2013 a whopping 40-70 centimetres came down on the city. But frozen bodies of water? There just isn't consistently frigid weather to make that happen. 

This came to mind again when I saw an article about the effects of climate change in the Netherlands, once famous for skating on the canals -- remember Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates? Even though the Netherlands dominates speed skating at the Olympics there are rarely suitable conditions for outdoor skating and the Elfstedentocht, once the longest skating event in the world at 200 kilometres has only occurred three times in the past 50 years, the last time in 1997. It may never take place again. 

                                                  Hunters in the Snow -- Pieter Bruegel the Elder 1565

Here in Canada, Ottawa's wonderful Rideau Canal Skateway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, never opened in 2023 because there weren't sufficient consecutive days of -10 to -20C  to ensure safe ice. This was the first time since the skateway began in 1971. 

While lots of people shrug and admit that they can happily live without the cold, surely these changes are the frost-bitten canary in the coal mine? I can't imagine there will be much discussion of frozen waterways during COP28 in Dubai, where the temperature hovers around +30C. Yet not only is this a sign of a rapidly warming planet, it is the end of what many of us took for granted, almost as a birthright, for the pleasures of winter. I think of Sheila Watt-Cloutier's book The Right to Be Cold: One Woman's Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet.

I know, you're thinking that the gospels do say Jesus walked on water, but that's not the same as skating! 

                                                                 Rideau Canal Skateway, Ottawa