(CC): Gordan Dionne
The wind rushes through your hair, the vibration from the pavement rattles your feet, and when the moment feels right, you apply pressure to the tail and pop the board off the ground and for an instant you are one with the universe. In that moment of silence, your ability to focus solely on the present will determine whether or not you stick the landing or eat the asphalt. Somewhere between finesse and carnage lies the Tao.
Growing up riding the ramps and grinding the rails, I can honestly admit that the last thing on my mind at the time was ancient Chinese philosophy, let alone string theory and quantum physics. Lo and behold, these two realms of thought, with literally an ocean between them, explain very poetically the maneuvers I was attempting to perform.
As the famed philosopher Alan Watts put it, “the Tao is to be so of itself, spontaneous, like a heartbeat.”
In the midst of rolling from ramp to ramp and flying over stair sets, thought becomes distracting and cumbersome, so, the only way to get into the “flow” is to move with the Tao, spontaneous.
I can remember times when I felt like my mind was running away from my body, up into the clouds it would go, leaving my arms and legs to ramble around hazardously from point A to Z, and then I’d grab my board and everything would descend quickly back to earth. There must be something about performing an action that requires your mind to be fully present and active that brings us into a state of quiet peace.
Now, where does string theory come into all of this? Completely permeating our universe, like a tightly woven blanket of interconnecting threads, exist excruciatingly tiny bands of energy all vibrating at a unique frequency.
These frequencies are responsible for creating different types of matter, like the hard rubber of a wheel or the soft pliable wood of a skateboard deck. Naturally, these strings comprise everything in between as well, like air, water, and coconuts.
Basically, physics is telling us what the Tao has been humbly whispering for thousands of years — everything is connected.
It seems no accident that finding an activity or sport that makes you feel this connectedness directly, as skating does for me, brings great relief.
By focusing on these principles and the realization that everything I do has a very real and direct impact on the entire universe (however minute it may be), has taught me to feel not only responsible for each and every one of my actions, but has helped see there is meaning behind everything.
Aside from the pursuit of enlightenment, these implications can be applied directly to schoolwork.
Take to your homework, tests and tasks the same way you would anything else that brings peace and quiet to your mind and puts to rest the chorus sitting on your shoulder as you try to concentrate.
For me, I skate. After, when I study, I find my mind is more at rest and focused. I never used to see skateboarding as meditation, or a way to turn down the volume in my mind, but believe me, it’s much easier to cram in a bunch of O-chem when the sirens aren’t blaring. Search for the meaning in what you’re studying, practice, and let it flow.
Be the Tao, be spontaneous, and remain in the moment.