SOL.

A long time ago, someone who was too small and weak to be a hunter and/or gatherer became lonely and depressed. The person was still allowed to live in the village, but was constantly mocked and bullied. They spent most of their time BROODING (play on words there?) because they were not desired enough to spend any time BREEDING or having relationships that everyone else had. Due to lack of appetite and sleep, that person became sensitive to things that could not be easily explained, and maybe even hallucinated, especially in the evenings. One day, the person gave names to what we now call the “sun” and the “moon”, animals that no one cared to notice, and other ideas, because the person felt less lonelier that way. After naming them, the person would say things to them, and would get excited at changes in weather and the behavior of the environment. The person would try to sing like birds and beat on different trees and rocks because they make different sounds. The person would try to draw pictures with dirt. The person noticed that some snakes could lay eggs without ever having a mate, and admired the snake. One day in the village, a snake bit a hunter-gatherer and the hunter-gatherer killed the snake. This angered the person deeply, and the person could not fight and win, so the person started yelling at the hunter-gatherer and said words that no one understood (known today as cursing), and when the hunter-gatherer rose up to fight the person, the person hit the hunter-gatherer with a perfectly shaped rock. The village was frightened by the person, but they were also intrigued with what the person said. Women and children (more impressionable than the grown men) started to believe that such words could make them strong enough to be as strong as the hunter-gatherers, and began to treat the person differently. The person would both entertain and teach the village and make up new names for everything, and the people would REMEMBER and SHARE their own thoughts, while hunter-gatherers would provide for the village and not be seen as glorious as they used to be unless they too would use the person’s new language. Some admired the person, others were jealous and fearful. Some women mated with the person not because they were attracted to or loved the person, but because they feared the unknown. After understanding their nature, the person felt ashamed, left the village, and left offspring and remnants to be raised by the hunter-gatherers and their wives. The village grew and became more diverse and innovative. No one knows what happened to the person, but they’d find writings every now and then scattered abroad. “Societies are created and/or destroyed because of our blind and unexplained beliefs in the idea of death”, said the person, then the person “found” another village.

b.1998

Juneau, AK

Coach

Sergei Maslov

Choreographer

Viktor Bartók

Ethan Pasternak was born on November 1, 1998 in Juneau, Alaska and learned to skate at the tender age of two. His parents, Fiona and Piotr, brought him to the city rink during summers and Mendenhall Lake in the winter. A child prodigy, Ethan surprised all the local skate club instructors when he performed a double axel at only five years of age. Mrs. Pasternak has often recalled that Ethan seemed more comfortable on skates than on his feet. Ethan was always dedicated to the sport, spending up to six hours each day skating.

He drew the attention of renowned coach Sergei Maslov as the youngest competitor in the 2010 Pacific Northwest Skating Championships. Under Mr. Maslov’s training, Ethan has become widely recognized as one of the world’s most talented young skaters to date. Ethan enjoys traveling and competing, but loves coming back home to skate by the Juneau Ice Fields. His fondest and earliest memory is skating on Mendenhall Lake in late January 2002. Weaving figure-eights at dusk, he listened to his skates echo against the calm, ancient glacier. From that moment forward, Ethan never wanted to leave the ice.