Attitude is Everything

I think we all know that bitching and complaining is ugly. I try really hard not to do it. No one really wants to hear it, but there are complainers everywhere. It never really feels good to go on and on about something, yet we continue to do it. It makes me want to explode sometimes when I hear someone bitch and whine about everything and everyone. It seems all that negative space could be filled with talking about all the good people and all the amazing dreams people have. So, lets have a good time, be grateful, forgiving, hopeful, and kind. Let people go ahead of you in traffic, smile at a stranger, forgive your parents and enemies, and attempt to love your job- or at least try to have a good attitude. Its the best thing for everyone, especially yourself.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

I heart skateboarding

I was just watching a video about a skateboard company named Roger. I was excited to watch it, because I am friends with Michael Sieben, one of the owners. I met Michael Sieben in Austin in about 2000 and always loved the zines he made and his art. He is now very well known as desrvedly so, in that he is incredibly talented and funny and hard working. Now he has graduated to movies produced by Thrasher, and I fricken love seeing him in films. The movies are always hilarious, and the quality of direction and cinematography totally match the high quality of his humor. And this video about Roger is also so well done and interesting and professional, and I absolutely loved watching it. Inlaid with some beautiful music, one of the characters (real or fake owner I don't know) says:

"There is something that's inside skateboarders that constantly drives them to do new things and to overcome things: this like its me against them attitude that you get. You are not making a bunch of compromises to fulfill another's idea of what you need be. The motivation is something different. The motivation is being something that you do to being something that you are."

It's a laughably cheezy thing to say and said completely tongue-in-cheek and said to make fun of skaters and their followers, but it made me think.  My brain began wandering around like it does, neurons firing away through memories, visions, insecurities, and ideas. I had to stop watching the movie, so that I could explore where my thoughts were going. Something clicked at that moment and I had to start writing. At some point I just realized that skateboarding fits me like nothing else. It just clicked like a piece of broken china that seamlessly fits together with a tiny dot of super glue.Why do I love skateboarding so much? How is it that I am 40 years old and still love it so much? I may be a masochist and a loser, but it is so much more than that. It's as if nothing else even comes close to itching the insides of my brain.  Riding that stupid little board with four wheels has been a life long commitment.  Kind of nuts.   
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