Rear view wisdom

When I feel stuck, I think about skateboards and risking for joy

Photo by Daniel Lincoln on Unsplash

Rear view wisdom is a mixed gift. On the one hand, I have the pleasure of figuring out some of the bigger questions life throws at us. On the other hand, I have to live with the fact that I don’t get a lot of do-overs, and I am just going to have to live with that reality. I have no choice but to make peace with your mistakes, or be miserable. But the things that landed me on my ass aren’t the things I regret. It’s when I opted for standing safe and still…and boring.

As a sixty-something, and a clinical psychologist at that, I’m used to dishing out a lot of worthless advice. Here’s a framework that will guide your priorities, even if you never touch a skateboard.

Evolve

• When you feel down about your achievements and your future, remember that skateboarding has just become an Olympics event. From my perspective, that is phenomenal. When I was in my teens and twenties, I was fascinated by the evolution that began with crummy contraptions of wood and wheels, with backyard tracks that usually landed you on your ass, and didn’t much beyond that.
• But it grew to the streets, to makeshift courses, to the monumental skills that developed seamlessly among riders as they inhaled each other’s techniques and then elevated them to something more extraordinary…