I have some passions, shooting is not one of them. This has to do with the fact that shooting often creates suffering. In that sense, you won’t see me standing at the shooting gallery at the Oktoberfest. I don’t bother to take part in laser tag or paintball battles either. In football, however, I think shooting is okay, especially since you don’t have a gun in your hand. And there is another discipline.
Deer are rarely seen in the Munich Hirschgarten. In winter it is the realm of another, special species. These people handle strange structures that look like unadorned vases, although these vases appear particularly stable and mobile. People, mostly men, hurl the inverted massive vases over ice rinks. The key question: are these people crazy or drunk?
It almost never snows in Syria, and when it does, it’s an extraordinary event and cause for a snowball fight. I attend such battles voluntarily and actively, it is not shot but thrown. A bit like the men with the inverted solid vases. So-called ice stock shooters, my research revealed. Contrary to my perception, the curling stones are not thrown in technical jargon, but shot.
My neighbor, who can move on ice like a dancer on a stage, recommended this winter discipline to me. So I tried them out. However, you do not have to have particularly strong sporting skills. It is important to swing your arm correctly and to let go of the stick in good time, bending your knees as deeply as possible so that the stick glides smoothly over the ground like clockwork. I’m still able to see parallels to golf today. However, before a golfer competes against a curler, he would have to dress warmly.
Well, I was wrapped up tight. However, I slipped on the first throw. Finding: Ice as a substrate has completely different properties than stones or wood. But they also have one thing in common: the hardness. I felt my body begin to shimmer blue and yellow in several places. In Syriac we say: The back has turned into a colorful map.
Of course, over the years I’ve heard that curling is seen by some as an old man’s sport, and that’s not exactly meant as a compliment. However, anyone who claims this will have to realize that it is a mistake. Because there is no sport more childlike and youthful. My time in the large refugee camp in Lebanon provided evidence of this. There was snow there too – so the children stuffed it into an empty Coke bottle, stood it up and let wooden sticks dash across the snow in the direction of the bottle. Whoever touched the bottle won.
Back to Munich’s Hirschgarten: In the meantime I’ve done a few icy deposits there. When I let a curling stick swing in the direction of the track, I put my hands on my eyes and avoid looking after the bullet. A training session with the kids in the refugee camp might have done me good back then.