You can't spell 'risky' without s-k-i

The deaths of two prominent people on the ski slopes in less than a week raises an interesting question for Catholics to ponder: Is it moral to strap slippery slats on your feet and hurl yourself off a mountain strewn with trees, rocks and cables?

Back in the 1920s, when air travel was first beginning, the same sort of debate arose over flying. Plane crashes were frequent enough that moral theologians wondered if Catholics could justify the risk of jumping into a rickety contraption that was as likely to end up nose down in a field as to land safely on a primitive strip of tarmac.

The difference between adventuring on the one hand and foolish risk-taking on the other is something all parents drum into their children's heads as they tear off on their bikes, doing wheelies down the center of the street. Adults try to maintain the same balance for themselves when they head off to work in the morning rush hour; the prevalence of road rage indicates how many become unbalanced.

Taking calculated risks is sometimes laudatory, as the history of Christianity attests. The Vatican newspaper recently paid tribute to dozens of missionaries who risked -- and lost -- their lives trying to evangelize the world (see page 2). The model for those missionaries, Jesus, risked His own life, as have His followers from the first days of the early Church's martyrs.

But none of them skied, an activity that claimed the lives of Michael Kennedy and Congressman Sonny Bono in the past week. Like most of life, recreation -- in the snow, on and below the water, in the air -- comes with risks. Sensibly avoiding them does not mean becoming a hermit; it does mean approaching them with an understanding of what could happen, being proportionate in what you take a chance on in light of what you're trying to attain, and always keeping your head about you, literally and figuratively.

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