It’s been a full five weeks since my last post. That’s, by far, the longest break I’ve taken from posting to this blog yet. I’m genuinely disappointed for letting that happen. But a lot has changed, a lot has happened, since October 19th of this year.
October 19th was one week after the passing of Dylan Reider and my return flight home from an eight-day-long trip to New York City. Within two weeks of my “homecoming,” Chloe and I visited my Aunt and Uncle, new to Southern California, in Aliso Viejo, and one of my best friends, Matt, visited LA from North Carolina. Lots of interesting local travel, good times with friends and family and who knows where else the time went? Halloween came and left. Almost as soon as I got back from running a Collegiate Skate Tour event in New York, I was preparing for the next one, which happened earlier this month, in Carlsbad, CA.
I received my license plates and drivers’ license from the state of California, spent more time with the student skateboarders of USC and was introduced to an impressive group of skateboarding nonprofit do-gooders via LA 84 Foundation.
Everything has been going very well, but I’ve not been making the time necessary to practice and progress with my writing. The ritual, for a time there, had perished. The regularity with which I express myself and my self’s thoughts through written (typed) word has been on the proverbial back burner. And I’m not okay with it, yet I’m aware and honest about it.
October 19th was one week after the passing of Dylan Reider and my return flight home from an eight-day-long trip to New York City. Within two weeks of my “homecoming,” Chloe and I visited my Aunt and Uncle, new to Southern California, in Aliso Viejo, and one of my best friends, Matt, visited LA from North Carolina. Lots of interesting local travel, good times with friends and family and who knows where else the time went? Halloween came and left. Almost as soon as I got back from running a Collegiate Skate Tour event in New York, I was preparing for the next one, which happened earlier this month, in Carlsbad, CA.
I received my license plates and drivers’ license from the state of California, spent more time with the student skateboarders of USC and was introduced to an impressive group of skateboarding nonprofit do-gooders via LA 84 Foundation.
Everything has been going very well, but I’ve not been making the time necessary to practice and progress with my writing. The ritual, for a time there, had perished. The regularity with which I express myself and my self’s thoughts through written (typed) word has been on the proverbial back burner. And I’m not okay with it, yet I’m aware and honest about it.
Matt Brokaw & Chloe LeBlanc during a hike through the San Gabriel Mountain Range
Written communication is more relevant than ever, as it’s hardly necessary to speak words with other humans to get by in today’s world. But then again, who reads anymore? If you’re reading this right now, I thank you for wanting to and applaud you for making the effort.
Within the daily grind, writing is and has been a practice, but longer-form experiments with text have suffered from my dormant ritual. It is each morning that I must sit down, each day I must deactivate the wireless internet, and each night I must edit the words written from earlier that day. For it is not what I’ve done that counts but only what I have not done. Everyone knows when someone is posting only to post, speaking just to speak, making statements strictly because they don’t want to be the only one NOT doing so… Everyone’s heard the expression, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” (Shout out to George Berkeley.) Well the way I see it, if the world is going to shit (no further comment here) and everyone starts making noises (all of the trees start falling), I’m surely not going to care which one or how many did coming crashing down. I’d only pay attention to the most distinguished, differentiated, loudest crashes in those woods (those most relevant and powerful to myself). The question at that point becomes, “how will I navigate through this world full of distraction?!"
Only those with best articulation, focus in their thoughts and execution in their communication will shine through in times when the world needs them most. So this post is a promise to myself to keep shining and making time for this interest I’ve so neglected.
"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."
- Aristotle
The intention is always productive, but actions speak louder than words. So here I am, finally, getting back to 7Ply Epic. And each day I shall write. Each week I shall post the best of that week. And each month, I shall improve. A selfish endeavor that will, hopefully, create subconscious change in anyone that notices the practice.
Be well and do better. Excluding zero days.
- 7Ply Epic
Within the daily grind, writing is and has been a practice, but longer-form experiments with text have suffered from my dormant ritual. It is each morning that I must sit down, each day I must deactivate the wireless internet, and each night I must edit the words written from earlier that day. For it is not what I’ve done that counts but only what I have not done. Everyone knows when someone is posting only to post, speaking just to speak, making statements strictly because they don’t want to be the only one NOT doing so… Everyone’s heard the expression, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” (Shout out to George Berkeley.) Well the way I see it, if the world is going to shit (no further comment here) and everyone starts making noises (all of the trees start falling), I’m surely not going to care which one or how many did coming crashing down. I’d only pay attention to the most distinguished, differentiated, loudest crashes in those woods (those most relevant and powerful to myself). The question at that point becomes, “how will I navigate through this world full of distraction?!"
Only those with best articulation, focus in their thoughts and execution in their communication will shine through in times when the world needs them most. So this post is a promise to myself to keep shining and making time for this interest I’ve so neglected.
"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."
- Aristotle
The intention is always productive, but actions speak louder than words. So here I am, finally, getting back to 7Ply Epic. And each day I shall write. Each week I shall post the best of that week. And each month, I shall improve. A selfish endeavor that will, hopefully, create subconscious change in anyone that notices the practice.
Be well and do better. Excluding zero days.
- 7Ply Epic
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