Black ice is the smoothest naturally occuring ice there is, as if nature were condescending to art. … Black ice is an act of nature as elusive as grace, and far more rare. … I have never skated on black ice, but perhaps my children will. They’ll know it, at least, when it appears: that the earth can stretch smooth and unbroken like grace, and they’ll know as they know my voice that they were meant to have their share.
