Inspiration to simplify our lives. Watch this.
Archive for the 'perspective' Category
This may seem like odd timing for this post, but I’ve been doing a little house cleaning lately and found this bumper sticker. I got a good laugh.
Back in ’03 I was living in Ketchum, Idaho working for the US Forest Service. One day Senator John Kerry came to town early on in the presidential race. He wanted to get in some down time before his life got really crazy. I got this sticker of a local coffee shop and tried to give it to him out of good humor.
My chance came early one morning when Senator Kerry was going backcountry snowboarding. I failed. I actually met the guy, but didn’t hand over the sticker. I’m sure he would have gotten a good laugh at it.
To the Senator’s credit, he hiked with snowshoes and a board on his back over 2,000 ft that morning. He got in a reasonable run and then headed over to the ski area for the afternoon. Solid day. Especially if you are in a Presidential race and 60 years old. The next day the media and Bush administration made an issue out of Kerry participating in extreme sports. On the same day Bush went to a NASCAR race and was applauded for relating to normal Americans. You know the story from there and is history…….
My life changed when I was about 12. I’ll never forget learning to ride a skateboard. I never stopped and it shaped my life. All aspects of it. It is only now, do I realize its vast and super positive influence on me. In many ways it set me free.
Skateboarding was an avenue for me to be creative with my lifestyle. I think back about music, where I’ve lived, my attitude, relationships, and even why I came to the mountains. Skateboarding.
Skateboarding was the basis for me to pick up a snowboard and head to the mountains, which in return lead to climbing them on rock and snow. In a way, snowboarding for me is simply an extension of skateboarding. Climbing is simply an extension of snowboarding, by being in the mountains. For me they are all connected. That is awesome.
I’ve always had a way of evading authority and the norm. A gift of the 80′s and early ’90′s skateboarding lifestyle. Everyday I go to work and see people that clearly can’t see outside the box. I go to the coffee shop and see people confined by the norm. They simply can’t see out.
I am now at a point in my life, where I can see outside the box on so many levels. Rules don’t apply. We make our own. We decide what is right and wrong for us. We don’t have to play by the confines our our society at any time during our lives. Our jobs, marriages, raising kids, and how we live can all take unique and beautiful paths.
Thank you skateboarding.
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Awesome recount in Kootenay Mountain Culture Mag of Mark Hartley’s ride on Mt. Fay last spring. Certainly, one of the wildest events I’ve ever witnessed in the mountains. Click on it for enlarged copy.
