Is life really walking on thin ice, symbolically? Undoubtedly, it is.
The first best example of this for me is traveling by car in Warsaw and Poland. The truth is that Polish roads, despite the definite improvement in their quality over the last 10 years, are still dangerous. Practically every time I get in the car, I wonder if I will come back from the trip, no matter how long it will last. I do always hope that I will return safely from every trip. The truth is, traveling by car is like walking on thin ice. This ice can break down at any moment. Further, the person walking on it can disappear in a fraction of a second forever. It does not have to happen due to your mistake.
We all are people, and others also make mistakes.
Thus, misfortune coincidence can ruin your life or take it away within seconds, especially on Polish roads. A metaphor for a danger connected with skating on thin ice refers not only to traveling by car but also to the whole life. The truth is, contrary to what modern people want to think – death is everywhere. It can reach all of us, without exception and warning. Can we prepare for it in any way? Apart from writing a will, I do not see how we can prepare for death.
A metaphor that life is dangerous skating on thin ice can be found in broadly defined culture, including music and paintings. Regarding the music, we can hear the reference in one of the most famous Pink Floyd’s albums named „The Wall,” in the song „Thin ice.” If you haven’t heard the album yet, I truly recommend you, my Dear Friend, to close your eyes and listen to the whole „The Wall” album.
On the other hand, Hieronymus Bosch has depicted in one of his paintings, named „Triptych of the Temptation of St. Anthony,” the devil as wearing ice-skates.
Ice-skates were a famous metaphor in literaturę and visual art in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Writers of the 16th century described the world as „skating on ice” to signify that it was on the wrong course and went off the rails. This was an allusion to the carelessness of those who slip on thin ice and can fall straight into the freezing water. There is also a Latin proverb from the 12th century that warns:
He who crosses the ice does not show himself wise.
