Slo-Mo
My dad shared this video with me this morning before I went to work. It is the best thing I have seen in a very long,long ,long time. Do yourself a favor and take some time out to watch this. Slo-Mo just got added to my guru list. Watch it now .
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One Tree Woodwork 
I don’t know if I want to thank you for this or not. It’s ten in the morning on a perfect day and I’m sitting at my table ready to burst into tears after watching that video. Slo-mo or Tim Joe…this time last year I was living on my bike which is what we cyclists (and a lot of homeless people) call always being outside, always having your bike right at hand…like SloMo and his skates I frequently refer to the experience of cycling as flying. I have spent many, many hours in the zone, lost in my head as the miles unroll…
But also, a brief perusal of my journal from this time last year reveals…well, let’s go look…”I swear to Heaven that the angels are conspiring against me…” That’s an opening sentence to an entry from April 1st. I’m talking about my growing stress over not having an income. I was being seriously threatened with eviction from the Park. After this place the next stop is the bush. I further went on to lament about how without a truck I couldn’t really get much going. A carpenter without a truck ain’t much.
As we all know, relief (?) finally came and now I have a truck and a pretty decent pile of new tools. My rent is almost caught up and eviction is no longer much of a threat. For this I traded eight months of my life. I was not very happy for most of those eight months. That’s why I feel like crying. I thought I had escaped and was going to be a cool old Blogger/cyclist but no…it doesn’t work that way.
SloMo said something in there that I picked up on, because this video hits so close to home: he said that he could just cash in…because listen, I never did. Oh I did: after the second divorce I cashed in and after the dust cleared I had about ten grand and a shack on the beach. I was a sailor then but ten grand does not last long. I made it last almost a year, though.
The gist of my lament here is that that old doctor is giving the wrong advice. Everybody on the fucking planet who Isn’t an asshole knows we are doing it wrong. Who wouldn’t want to spend the rest of their days roller skating or sailing or riding a bicycle? Steve Jobs, that’s who. An audience member at one of his lectures, a college student, once asked him why, with all his money, didn’t he cash in and go sailing?
“Because sailing is boring,” he replied. “Do you know how much fun it is to be in charge of a multi-million dollar corporation?” Of course not. How could a college kid know that? Only a handful of men in the world know what it’s like to run a monster corporation. And I am sure they are all assholes.
Doctor Slo makes it look easy. It ain’t. Those $500 skates and an apartment on the beach in California ain’t cheap. He cashed in and set up some kind of income for himself. The thing about doing what you want to do with your life means that first you have to figure out a way to pay for it. The simpler the better, obviously, but it still takes work and planning. Financial planning and hard work and so on isn’t very zen, certainly not as zen as riding a bicycle or skating or cresting a wave on your hobie cat…
At least I don’t feel like crying anymore. Now I’m just pissed that I have to pedal to the beer store because while I typed this I slammed the last of my leftover beer.
So thanks, Tohner, for the video. It made me realize, in my typically convoluted fashion, that the hard work is what makes the kid’s play all that much sweeter. It further reminds me that I still haven’t got it right yet, much less sorted out.
But I’m working on it.
tj
Slomo’s got it figured out.
He know what he’s talking about. I figured out many years back that material posessions don’t mean much to me. I love my family, I have some really close friends, and I have my wood.
I need to do my job to keep the family fed, watered and comfortable.
Other than that, nothing much matters
I came across this video elsewhere but thanks for sharing it. I think there are some good messages – “Do what you like!” and -you can live a simple life and be happy etc. I was struck, as my pal Tim Joe noted, though by how much easier it is to cash in when you have been a doctor living in a mansion driving a beemer than its is for most working stiffs. I can relate a lot more to someone like Tammy Strobels at http://www.rowdykittens.com/ than an ex Doc making 6 figures. That said good on ya Slow Mo for finding a place to be happy, not be an asshole,and for doing something all day that puts a big ol smile on your face. As Tarik Saleh says (http://www.tariksaleh.com/tsbc/) there are two rules;
1. RIde bikes
2. Try not to be an Ass
After reading these thoughtful responses, I’d like to add my cent and a half.
Here’s what I think Slomo figured out. He hated his life–and by extension, himself–so he shook it up. Instead of bitching about what an asshole he was while he waited for the car place to finish detailing his Beemer, he got rid of the Beemer. And everything else.
My takeaway wasn’t that everyone needs to literally follow this cat’s lead–quit a high-paying job and go rollerskate on the beach. That’s Slomo’s dream, but it ain’t mine.
What I got is that people need to be true to what makes them happy, and go after that to whatever degree possible. At whatever age. It’s a story of hope. It’s a story of, I’m going to figure this out. Maybe not today, but someday. And then, I’M GOING TO DO IT.
(Now, if your dream IS to cash out, get a studio on the beach and rollerskate all day, I can see how this story would be kind of irritating.)
Thanks everybody, TJoe, Ryan,Tom and C
First, let me say its great to have such interesting takeaways from Slo-mo. I personally like to look at it as a tale of redemption. His path to redemption was made easier by his cash-yes, but anyone can walk away from it when your down it takes true courage to walk away from the table when your ahead. The portion of the documentary that just about started the waterworks for me was when Slo-Mo was talking to the interviewer about why he thought people cheered for him he replied something to the effect of because they are cheering for the one that got away. This is true it makes me happy/satisfied to see someone go after a dream with both feet(skates) no matter the consequence. Yes he had money yet he also truly assumed he was in the beginning stages of going mad yet he continued. He knew his truth lied somewhere within the earth and his skates and has spent the last 15 years trying to shake it out.
T
S
J
Fuck, Tohner at the risk of our friendship (which means a shitload to me) don’t forget that those people on Venice Beach were cheering a guy with a film crew following him down a strip famous for eccentrics…and film crews.
I’m not saying there is anything fake or less than beautiful about this video. I love what is happening here and I hope to hell I didn’t hurt feelings etc etc but when you said it is easy to walk away from nothing the disconnect kicked in…listen, man, you can’t walk away when you are down. That’s what being down IS. Nowhere left to go. I have spent the last three years looking up, from the bottom, trying to be a voice that says that the bottom ain’t so bad, as long as you keep looking up.
The fact that nobody gets it is how…aw fuck it, man. Never mind. One of the reasons that I live alone in a crappy trailer park on the side of the highway in Florida is that I could always play along just fine, up to a point…then I have to start commenting on the emperor’s fashion choices.
tj
Fuck, Tj this sort of interaction would happen every night at dinner time in my house. Having strong opinions is sort of on the Jackson family crest. Trust me you have to cut pretty deep to upset me these days.
Also the cheering I was really talking about was coming quietly from my heart when I saw the look of enlightenment and rebirth in an old mans eyes.
Also no need to ever play along on my blog I enjoy real interaction I have no need for the useless backslapping that seems all to common on many blogs.