Boys on the Ice by Derrick Glenn Mercer
Stories are as much a part of hockey as ice, missing teeth, and mullet haircuts. I have just returned from my weekly Saturday night pickup hockey league that I organize. This group of men has been playing together for 5 years. One characteristic of communities is the telling of common stories.
We skate, sweat, and shoot a rubber disk weakly toward a goalie. We tap our sticks on each other’s shin pads to say hello. We file off the ice after an hour and sit around a dressing room filled with the stench of equipment and we talk. We talk and talk and talk. Each guy recounts the stories of the game. A goalie grins as he talks about the moment 20 minutes earlier when he snatch a puck from the air with his glove. Dale makes eye contact with his new defense partner and compliments him by sharing the story of how well he played. Jon laughs as he claims to be the best hockey player in the room, to the hoots and protests of the others, because he scored a goal. We talk. We share stories. We are a community.
Does your professional life include story telling?
THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE INTERNATIONAL PLP NING AS MY INTRODUCTION AS AN EXPERT VOICE.
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