On the eve of the ski patrol strike vote being ratified, I was having my nails done. I happened to glance out the window. Instead of looking dull and overcast as it was when I arrived for my appointment, suddenly the sky was full of thick, fluffy clouds on fire with the brilliant rose-gold sunset.“Wow, look at that sky,” I mused to the woman applying the last coat of Tiffany blue polish to my nails. She gave a little smile but didn’t look up and I figured she either didn’t understand me or just wanted her work day to be over so she could get the hell out of there.I clicked on my Instagram with my free hand and there was another sky on fire. Only this one was real. It depicted a block in Los Angeles, tall palm trees standing like crazy-haired stick figures against a hellishly glowing orange sky. Flames licked the sidewalks. Embers shot out onto the street. Hunks of buildings smouldered like monster charcoal. A road sign warned of speed bumps ahead in the understatement of the century.The next morning I woke up to headlines about Sunset Boulevard in ruins as the scale of the California fires came brutally in focus. And then, with just the tiniest flick of my thumb on the smooth screen, there appeared a different headline altogether: “Contract ratified. Workers win.” An end to a historic patrol strike at the largest ski resort in America. A collective exhale for Park City.After 10 months of bargaining, 12 days on strike, war was over. The good guys won. But in that moment, it was hard to feel joyful about our local ski patrol sticking it to the man.Surely, there was a fire that raged in our hearts as our community came together. Maybe it just felt good to stand up for something we all believed in. Standing against corporate greed. Standing for a living wage and wage parity that will rise with Vail Resorts patrol wages across the board. Winning feels good, but now what?I don’t mean to diminish the relentless dedication of our patrol union and our community coming together to make this happen. A win for our hardworking patrol is a win for us all. And I can’t wait to rip some freshies in the Black Forest once all the trails are safely opened. But the work ahead goes far beyond avy mitigation and rope drops.First, there’s the healing that needs to happen. The following exchange took place in the comments after a social media post I made in favor of the union. And it’s just one sample of the current discord. Friend 1 is a long-time Park City Mountain employee and Friend 2 is a long-time patroller who recently retired.Friend 1: “Some grace needs to be granted on both sides if we’re ever to be whole again. … Please give benefit of the doubt as we attempt to heal and move forward.”Friend 2: “We will be whole again when Vail gets out of our town.”Friend 1: “This opinion is not conducive to healing. … But thanks for contributing nothing.”Friend 2: “I have far from contributed ‘nothing.’ I spent 11 years beating the shit out of myself as a ski patroller for coffee-money pay … a job that was … fun … before Vail took over. … (Now, my) body is crippled with pain from the physical beating I took … to provide that ‘Epic Experience.’” It’s left me bitter and angry. … The reason I stayed for as long as I did was because I believed I was making a difference. … Until this point of view is understood, there will be no healing.”Another friend who lives in upstate New York, far away from the particular problems of life in a Western resort town, chimed in with a strong reality check: “This is the whitest post on Facebook ever.” Fair enough.I’m happy for our ski patrol and I’m happy for our town. And damn, it feels good to be united. I believe we can heal. We can learn from this. There’s even a movement afoot to “Free Park City” and take back our mountain. Now maybe we can believe that anything is possible when we come together. That we can create even more meaningful change — change that goes beyond the rainbow translucence of our own little bubble. Because now more than ever, we have even bigger fires to put out.Otherwise, it may all have been just like we were pissing in the Santa Ana winds.The post Betty Diaries: Ski patrol won while a bigger firestorm rages appeared first on Park Record.