The Swap

A man who looked to be in his mid-50’s sat next to me on a cross village bus. In truth, he was 75 years of age.  Strong in stature, he wore a Scandinavian sweater on this cold winter evening, but no jacket.  His eyes shown with a youthful heart. Asking how my ski day had been I raved on about the conditions and my love for the sport. In turn, I asked him the same question and he caught me by surprise. He had been snow boarding!  A convert of 2 years, he vowed never to ski again even though he had done so since childhood.  “It’s easier on the knees,” he admitted. I asked what his family thought of this.  He said they didn’t know....that every winter day since retirement he would kiss his wife goodbye with ski gear in hand and walk down the path to catch the bus to the mountain.  But once out of sight, he would rest his bag in the snow and lean his old skis against the back barn and swap them for his new snow board. I couldn’t help but wonder aloud if he planned to reveal this to his wi