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Jon Turk
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intro part 3
- Older in Siberia 2004: intro part 2 - Newer in Siberia 2004: intro part 4
In 1997, I got caught in an avalanche in Fish Bowl, just out of bounds from the Fernie ski hill. Deep pow -- Buried surface hoar ? Fifteenth line on the slope. And all that beautiful white crinkled and I was somersaulting way way out of control. Ka..woomph and my left arm was jerked out of the socket. Ka..woomph and the snow pushed me down so hard that it pulled my pelvis apart. Poof, and the snow spit me out at the bottom, head up, breathing. I tried to stand, but my legs wouldn?t move. ?Shit, I?m paralyzed.? And I began to envision the rest of my life in a wheelchair. Not a pretty thought. But something inside said, ?Try wiggling your toes. If your toes can wiggle, you?re hurt, but ok.? I took a deep breath, savoring the moment, afraid of the results. Then I sent a signal down the nerve endings, ?Hey, you, toes, wiggle.? They wiggled. Whew. But I was laid up for a long time and when I got out of the wheelchair, I still had moments when I couldn?t walk very well, and, worse yet, days when I couldn?t ski. I returned to Vvenka and told Moolynaut about my problem. She had me take off all my clothes, stand naked on one leg, put one hand straight out in front of me, and fold the other hand behind my back. Then she spit on my pubic hairs and rubbed them with rabbit fur. She had a soft touch, for an old woman. She asked me if I believed that Kutcha the Raven God could heal me. Well you know, I didn?t really believe it, but I didn?t want to say ?NO?, and I was certainly afraid to lie, so I said, ?Tell Kutcha that I come from a different society and that we don?t usually believe in this sort of medicine. But I came all the way here and I?m trying to learn.? That must have been the right answer, because I got better.
Dated: 03/03/2004
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