Verbatim

The Big Wood River at the base of Bald Mountain.

Welcome back to Verbatim. This week we hear from Chis McAvoy, an Upper School history teacher at the Community School and a finalist in the Wood River Land Trust’s Heart of the Valley Contest. In addition to teaching history, McAvoy also coordinates TCS’ Community Service Program. When he’s not working at school, he’s doing what all Sun Valley locals love to do: hiking, mountain biking, snowboarding and playing with his two beautiful children, Teagan and Devon.

Tension

One looms above us
Standing still
Unmoving
Supplemented by society
Crafted with precision
Digitally reproducing snow on demand
Designed for our enjoyment
And the gathering of wealth

One slips daily amongst us
Ever moving
Ever changing
Bursting its banks
Living, breathing
Designed by Nature’s elements
And renewed continually

How to sustain such tension?
I don’t think one can

I think it sustains us
As we learn to live it
As we learn to love it

Tension

The obvious choice: Wood River or Baldy? In pondering this, it became clear that both are diametrically opposed. Thus our valley lives amidst a daily dynamic tension. The tension, I believe, sustains us rather than vice versa.