blade or die

Ah, yes, this funny thing called life. It’s amazing, isn’t it?

Think of all what we have. Really, just stop for a minute. Last week, I wrote about that crazy little thing called love. It was fun to write because I didn’t waste any unnecessary time thinking about bad things, except for, you know, war, genocide, famine, and birth defects. Most of us are lucky enough to not have those plastered in the streets where we live, so we’re all smiling idiots, right?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

And that’s sad considering how fortunate we are.

That’s why we all need to regularly stop what we’re doing. We need to pull ourselves out of the repetitive cycle we can get caught up in and actively think, “What am I doing?” Really, you have to do it yourself because unfortunately there aren’t enough of us around wired correctly that we can focus solely on the better parts of life.

We all know that the most unfortunate thing about happiness is that it takes a lot of work and it never sticks around as much as we’d like.

That’s why it’s so important to not only search for happiness, but we must design it. We—the creatures with the thumbs, big brains, and seemingly endless capabilities—have to play God in our own lives to make an existence dedicated to creating happiness.

For someone like me, whose conscious and subconscious mind will travel to first to darkness instead of light, it’s extremely important. Like, extremely.

It’s easy to focus on negativity. Not just because it appears to be everywhere, but it’s almost easier to furrow a brow than crack a smile. It’s easier because it leaves us vulnerable. When you smile, you broadcast happiness. And because so many of us are miserable, we’ll quickly attempt to attack someone’s happiness to make them as miserable as we can make ourselves.

I say take that chance.

Take the risk of being vulnerable. It’s the only way you’ll be open enough to experience the best parts of everything.

We all, after all, are united by chanced. Not just the way that all of our actions shape our destinies, how our daily interactions make a larger impact on others’ lives, or stuff like that. I’m talking about taking a chance of someday ending up in a wheelchair.

The blading you make is defined by the chances you take.  If you never took the chance to overcome your fear, you’d never put on skates in the first place. If you never took a chance, you would have nothing.

Your best days skating should not be measured by the easy tricks you landed, but the number of times you picked yourself off the ground trying the impossible.

A.J. said it better than I could…

If there’s any reoccurring thought you should have in your head, it’s not “what if…” but “Fuck it.”

Fuck it all.

Fuck the fear of failure. Fuck the details. Fuck the paperwork. Fuck it all.

Do it for the love, the joy, the horrific lows, and the orgasmic highs. Do it for creating a name so honored, revered and loved that they’ll build statues in your likeness in cities named after you.

Do it so people take notice, but don’t give a fuck what they’re saying.

Get out there and make people notice.

Don’t fill your head every minute thinking of what we’re missing, what could be better, or what we need. You do that all of the time and you’ll go crazy with regret, worry, anxiety, and all sorts of other stuff that will give you a troubling stomachache.

Do what you love.

Fact.

Take fucking chances.

Quit your boring-ass, low-paying job. Travel the globe. Punch that dude in the face. Ask that chick out.

Sure, it’s better to love and lost than better to never have loved at all, but pain, anguish, heartache, and other things from stupid, ill-conceived actions make for great stories, fantastic art, and a head full of wisdom.

Or, if you’re like the guys at IRollNY, you can do some good, like help promote, Teen Power, a non-profit agency that’s doing some good work.

But, with wisdom, is the knowledge to not get too carried away and being safe when it’s most important.

Have fun, blade hard, but don’t forget to stop and notice.

Stop and take a look at yourself.

If you’re unhappy, start changing it. There is no such thing as…

Talking about change is something left to people with crowds in front of them. Since I’m here, by myself, I’m going to stop tapping on these stupid fucking keys and go out and do something to make myself happy.

I’m off to skate.

In honor of the birthday of one of the wisest men to ever smile on this planet, I’ll end this diatribe with this…

If we’re all as smart as we think we are, we’ll heed that advice, design a life around happiness, forget what isn’t important, move on from the pain, and become bold and brave enough to ensure that fear, destruction, and death has no place in our lives.

Blade or Die,

— Brian Krans

P.S. — Remember, my second book, Freeze Tag on the Highway, is coming out in July. I’d appreciate any support on this because, if you can’t tell, writing is one of the many things that makes me happy.

My first book, A Constant Suicide, is all about unhappiness, if you like that sort of thing.