blade or die

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eah, I know I’ve been gone for a while more often than not. I’d like to say my time has been well spent, but for those of you looking for your weekly batch of nonsensical babble that is this column, you don’t want to hear about it.

Basically, I’ve been thinking. I know it’s a scary thought, but like Murph says…

Quite frankly, I often don’t see the purpose of this column.

There’s really no real point in rehashing every edit and every little tidbit of news in the blading community like some glorified commentator or blogger. Sure, there’s lots of cool shit out there all of the time, and some really weird and interesting personalities in the blading community, but one fucked up edit or someone streaming bullshit on a webpage (including yours truly) doesn’t change anything ever.

Then again, sometimes it’s entertaining. Other times, it’s not.

But there are two certain, inalienable facts about blading:

1. People will always blade.
2. You can never change someone’s opinion of what you do.

(Thanks to Johnny Sakkis.)

Blading, like everything else is life, is something made possible by a motivated group of individuals acting collectively and individually. This is great as it serves the greater good, and it serves it well.

But when we start dissecting their every little move, it only creates more frustration and unwanted anxiety.

We tend to overcomplicate things only to give it more significance or to make the cracks bigger so it can crumble. Both are dangerous.

Anything—blading, work, relationships, events from a blacked-out Friday—can become completely unenjoyable when put under a microscope and viewed only by its tiniest details. Yeah, sure, we want people doing that kind of shit for cancer research, but being dedicated to the details will only stress you out.

Simplicity, my friends, is the key to personal freedom.

We have never been and will never be a truly free people, no matter where on the globe we live. We need money to survive and most of us will work the majority of our lives so we can do what we want. We have to pay taxes out of that money to support governments that rarely hold the interest of the people in mind. Every day we are alive people we don’t know will make rules that we have to follow, whether we agree with them or not. And should we break those rules, there will be dire circumstances because of it.

I say fuck all that and search for whatever you want, so long as you don’t have to hurt others to get it.

We’ll spend our entire lives searching for the things that make us happy, and I think that’s the point of life.

Some of us lucky sons of bitches will find it sooner and easier than others.

We should relish in the simple goodness of life. Out of all the semen in our fathers’ balls, we were the best one of the group. Then we made it out of the birth canal. Win x 2.

Whatever happens after that is a matter of resources, circumstance, and out ability to tell adversity to fuck off. Wasting time on every little detail of things that bother us will only bring us down further.

We should be amazingly thankful not just for what we’ve been given, but the sweet, delicious spoils that come into our lives. Yeah, there will be lots of scary moments of uncertainty, but we know that because we’ve accepted every challenge before us and risen above them nothing can frighten us.

Then again, no matter what we do or think we know, some things will never make any sense.

Dogboarding from DANIELS on Vimeo.

Or we can want it all, sweat the small stuff, and discover the devil in the details. All you have to give to get all that is your sanity.

And that will kill you.

You can’t enjoy your life when you’re dead.

Blade or Die,
— Brian Krans