Does God want me to be a senior citizen skateboarder?

There's got to be a deep meaning behind my strangely strong desire to become a skateboarder, longboarding style, at the age of 63. 

After all, don't the world's Western religions tell us that God/Allah is in control of our lives? And don't the world's Eastern religions tell us that Karma/Tao guides our decisions? 

Thus I have to assume that if I follow through on my lust for longboarding, I will have taken another step toward my salvation, enlightenment, god-realization, satori, and overall Major Dude'ness. 

(For some background on my divine mission, see here and here.)

Now, so far I haven't actually set foot on a skateboard. I don't think I've even ever touched one. But the Big Dude Upstairs works in mysterious ways, the most mysterious being that the Big Dude Upstairs doesn't exist.

I simply feel like longboarding is the next step in my spiritual, philosophical, and mystical evolution. Which surprises me, since I have no idea what that path looks like, or if it leads anywhere. 

Details...details.

Skateboarders don't worry about such niceties.

As noted in this post, I emailed the dudes at Salem's Exit Real World skateboard/snowboard shop (great name), asking if I was crazy to be considering jumping into skateboarding at my social-security-eligible age.

What makes me think skateboarding is for me is part of the reply I got:

I've been in the skateboard industry for the past 10 years and have seen all shapes, sizes, and ages skateboarding. That's the good part, there aren't any rules for skateboarding. I think that plays a big part in the popularity of skateboarding.

No rules. Excellent! Quoting myself, a favorite activity:

It comes down to my basic rule for living: there are no rules. Including that one. Life is a mystery. Dive into it however, wherever, whenever you feel like it; swim around; explore; it'll still be a mystery.

I don't know if I'll end up getting a longboard. But if I do, my dream is to dance on it with a semblance of the style below. Isn't this how the road of life should be travelled on?

 

Comments

[Ultra Monk]

Just don't hurt yourself following God's will.... *wink*

For me, I decided 2 days ago, running along a bike path in Dillon CO, that the people who go to work and take care of business are as enlightened as any guru, they just have no need to talk about it.

[David Lane]

I love skateboarding. I have an electric skateboard that can go up to 23 miles an hour and is an absolute blast. I got it from Altered electric skateboards and it is a game changer..... very stable and very easy to use.... though at first a bit scary for us old codgers!!!

[Brian Hines]

David, I note from your Wikipedia page that you're eight years younger than I am. So if an electric skateboard is scary for you, as an old codger, it would be much scarier for me.

Especially since I've never skateboarded at all. If I jump into longboarding, it'll be with an unpowered board. I'm attracted to the "carving" side of longboarding, since we live in a hilly (but not mountainous) rural area with lightly travelled roads.

Also, I've always wanted to learn how to surf and snowboard. But surfing requires ocean waves, and snowboarding requires mountain snow. It struck me that "surfing" on a longboard would provide some of the feel of surfing/boarding on other surfaces -- albeit softer ones.

Still, with the right protective gear, I don't see longboarding as being inherently much more dangerous than surfing or snowboarding. And it's got to be less dangerous than the scootering I've been doing on my Burgman 650.

A few scrapes and bruises from falling off a longboard at a fairly low speed are nothing like being falling off a motorcycle or scooter at 50-60 mph.