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My Profile
Because I can't bear to eulogize Doug - 2008-08-19
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8:57 p.m. - 2005-05-07
Wolf on wheels. Looks like I’m going to get my skateboarding fix a lot sooner than I thought I was. I’ve been waiting for Lords of Dogtown. Coming to a theater near me June 3rd. Yes, I have a pash for the Z Boys. Dogtown and Z-Boys was great because it was made by the actual Zephyr team, but the camera work was mostly in wiggle-vision. Hand-held cinematography of the most UN-steadicam kind. Hard to take for someone with depth perception and balance problems. As far as documentaries go, eh, B-. The subject matter shoots straight to the top of my personal chart though. I love skateboarding. Surprised? Don’t be. Riding the boards is graceful, beautiful, even. Amazingly beautiful for something so dangerous. That’s the joy of it. There’s no other activity I can think of which combines risk and art so well. A speed driven ballet where the dancers regularly shred skin and break limbs. Cool. Plus skateboarding has an outlaw charm that other sports lack. I understand the beefs with skateboarding. Damaging to property. Some riders are obnoxious. Littering, cussing, trespassing, and occasionally scaring the crap out of unwary drivers and pedestrians. Still and all, I love that until Tony Hawk and the X Games, skateboarders were considered bums, losers and nogoodniks who pursued their sport in defiance of law and respectability. That’s changed some, but it’s hard to totally makeover the public’s perception. Skateboarder = criminal. Laughable when you think of what’s going on now in the realm of professional sports. Heck, these days boarders are choir boys compared to the thugs in the NBA. Anyhow, there’s a small municipal playground in the village of Podunkville. Tired of having skateboarders loose on the streets, the village installed a skate park beside the playground. 2 quarter pipes and a couple of stunt boxes. With many, many, many warning signs posted about skating at one’s own risk, the skate park opened a few weeks ago to moderate success. I was out running errands with Wolf last week and stopped at the playground for a breather. Wolf ignored the slides and swings and spent the entire time with his face pressed to the chain link watching the bigger kids do their thing. This afternoon we went back. Pads, helmet, and a goofy little mini-skateboard Wolf had gotten eons ago, but never seemed to have much interest in. Besides sending his Sheriff Woody doll down the driveway on it for a careening ride into the lilac bushes. The time has come the mother said to speak of many things, Today my kid became a skateboarder. He struggled to learn how to keep his board beneath him, but eventually he got it. Wobbly, but victorious he got the knack of getting the board going and riding for a few feet until inertia caught up. Wolf was gagging to get on the pipes and boxes. Something I firmly vetoed. For now. I insist on basic competency while rolling flat before I’ll allow him to go vertical. In time my kid will take on the pipes and I’ll let him do it. Then, like today, I’ll pretend to read my book and that the sweat on my forehead is from the sun, giving only mild encouragement to try it again when he wipes out. Instead of rushing in with fretful clucking and an excess of momsy angst, which is what I really want to do. Can’t be a nervous nelly on a skateboard. I can’t load my fears onto my son. Not if he’s ever to get the hang of skateboarding. I haven’t been on a board since I was in high school. And even back then I wasn’t very good. I started too late and was afraid. Afraid of hurting myself, yes, but also afraid of looking like a fool. Wolf knows nothing of this yet. He openly admired the big guys in the park today. Cheering the effort even when the stunt went awry. Wolf was the only little kid and the only one wearing protective gear. He didn’t notice this either. It’ll be a while before he does and demands to be set free from his pads. In the meantime we’ll play if safe, well as safe as it gets on a skateboard, which isn’t very. Oddly approriate that I let my kid take up skateboarding on Mother’s Day weekend. Encouraging my kids to do stuff, even risky stuff, is one of the most important mom jobs. And you know I take my momming seriously. I’m not about to fall down on the job and smother Wolf just because it makes my life easier. Tomorrow, on the day set aside for honoring Mothers, I’m taking my kid over to Malltown and buying him a bigger board. Love, ~ The Littlest P-Boy’s Mom
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