fortunate few

The modern world around us is filled with distractions. We invent everything, to keep ourselves occupied. People wander through life texting, scrolling and numbly listening to headphones…blocked & insulated away from other human beings. The more the population explodes exponentially, the further we become from each other.

Bruce Lee said, “If every person would help their neighbor, no person would be without help.” Hell! I barely know my neighbors….do you!? If they are anything like the rest of us, at the end of the day, the six pack gets opened, dinner is consumed, the world is locked away ‘out there’ and  TV is the new god! Sometimes, for many, the only comfort is the sound of ice falling into a glass of J&B scotch.

However, I digress. Skateboarders are an exception to this. We are usually quite fond of each other. Sure, we may talk smack on others, but as a whole, we will cruise together & hype each other up in a session. Its as though we share a special secret no others can know of. We are the fortunate few. We are not armchair warriors. We live our lives ourselves and not vicariously through another.

Krishnamurti stated that, “…if you live your life through the opinion of another, all you will ever see in yourself is the opinion of others.” Convoluted? No! It makes perfect sense. Society wants us to toe-the-line; follow the rules. Society wants us to obtain a few letters after our names & gain respectability…then be a slave to money until we die. That is safety for society. As skateboarders, we walk to the beat of our own drummer & refuse to go the path others would have us take. We are the fortunate few. Thnx PK, Kyle Lightner, Brian Walnum for photographs, Matt for TA/Jay photo and all my pool pals—Skate Long-Ozzie