{"id":1367,"date":"2017-05-24T10:20:18","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T15:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/?p=1367"},"modified":"2017-05-19T14:40:04","modified_gmt":"2017-05-19T19:40:04","slug":"skateboarding-lesson-0-the-first-noble-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2017\/05\/skateboarding-lesson-0-the-first-noble-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"SKATEBOARDING LESSON 0: The First Noble Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Sideshow Bob<\/span>:<\/strong> <\/em>[chuckling] Mr. Simpson, you are forgetting the first two noble truths of the Buddha.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Homer Simpson<\/span>:<\/strong> <\/em>I am not!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EykjQwpmDFk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">For those who slept through Buddhism 101\u2014or failed to see <i>The Simpsons<\/i> Episode 8F20 (season three, episode 21, first aired April 9, 1992)\u2014the First Noble Truth of the Buddha is this:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>There is suffering.<\/i><\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Which isn\u2019t such a revelation at first glance, but like a lot of things with the Buddha, the big reveal isn\u2019t in what he\u2019s said, but what he\u2019s omitted:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The First Noble Truth is not: <i>There is suffering because you\u2019ve done bad things.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0nor is it: <i>There is suffering because you didn\u2019t try hard enough.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0nor is it: <i>There is suffering because you are a screw-up.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0nor is it: <i>There is suffering because man is born of Original Sin.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0nor is it: <i>There is suffering because God is dead!<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0nor is it: <i>There is suffering because God is a jerk!<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0nor is it: <i>There is suffering because there was never any God!<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">There is no \u201c<i>because<\/i>&#8221; at all. \u00a0It\u2019s a simple statement of fact that should be obvious, but which we all deny on a daily basis: <i>There is suffering.<\/i><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>There just is. \u00a0Often with no one to blame. \u00a0Often for no reason at all. \u00a0And that\u2019s fine; stop beating yourself up over it (which, handily, brings us to the Second Noble Truth\u2014<i>Suffering is born of craving and desire and clinging to How Things Should Be<\/i>\u2014which is important, but not really germane to skateboarding).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I bring this up because I need to share something with you:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">If you are an adult person getting on a skateboard,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span class=\"s1\"><b>YOU ARE GOING TO GET HURT.<\/b><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Full stop, no <em>if<\/em>s, no <em>because<\/em>s, no <em>unless<\/em>,\u00a0no provisos.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If you are really careful\u2026 <strong>YOU WILL STILL GET HURT.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If you always wear your pads\u2026 <strong>YOU WILL STILL GET HURT.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If you are lucky or unlucky, careless or stupid, cautious or clever\u2026<strong>YOU WILL GET HURT.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It might be minor or major, might land you in the ER or sit you on your sofa for an afternoon with ice on your knee, but one way or the other <strong>YOU ARE GONNA GET HURT.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u2026 and that\u2019s <i>fine<\/i>. \u00a0If is fine and just and right that you will be injured, because, as the Buddha and Sideshow Bob remind us, There is Suffering.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Every time I start talking to someone my age about the fact that I returned to skateboarding at 36, they voice admiration, and then something like envy, and always lurking around is the sentence <em>\u201cI\u2019d break my neck if I tried that!&#8221;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And the thing is, while you will certainly get hurt, you probably won\u2019t break your neck. \u00a0There is, as it turns out, quite a distance between <i>hurt<\/i> and <i>crippled<\/i>, and even a further reach to <i>dead<\/i>. \u00a0I\u2019ve seen folks take tremendous falls and pop right back up, I\u2019ve seen\u2014and taken\u2014minor falls that have turned out to be sprained ankles and broken wrists and concussions. \u00a0I\u2019ve seen\u2014and worn\u2014bruises every color of any Michigan sunset in any season. \u00a0I\u2019ve seen plenty of broken bones, but not a single death or black out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So let me share with you something my doctor told me\u00a0when I told her I\u2019d taken up with skateboarding\u2014on the visit I scheduled as a follow-up after a trip to the ER:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>\u201cGood. \u00a0Keep it up.&#8221;<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Her rationale: If you are an adult American, than it is almost certain that you aren\u2019t getting nearly enough exercise. \u00a0And\u2014<strong><em>Noble Truth alert!<\/em><\/strong>\u2014you aren\u2019t likely to start getting <i>more<\/i>\u00a0exercise as you continue aging. \u00a0So, in the absence of everything else, the choice here isn\u2019t between taking a risk by jumping on a skateboard and playing it safe by not doing so: \u00a0Not getting enough exercise absolutely guarantees a shorter life with degraded quality. \u00a0Absolutely, with no exceptions. \u00a0Full stop.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Getting on the skateboard? \u00a0You\u2019ll get hurt, but you won\u2019t die. \u00a0And, hell, I regularly hang with a 70-year-old dude at my local skatepark. \u00a0Does he tear it up? \u00a0Nope; he cruises around, carving on the transitions, working on dropping on. \u00a0But he\u2019s having hella fun, and I\u2019ve seen him take big falls and pop right back up.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/C5GwtMzI1vc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div>All that said, being <em>realistic<\/em> isn\u2019t the same as being <em>fatalistic<\/em>, and I will point out that my rate of injury (and complete avoidance of further concussions) has directly correlated to beginning to wear pads regularly at the skatepark or when attempting anything new and exciting. \u00a0<strong>Wear your pads<\/strong>, learn to <strong>wrap an ACE bandage<\/strong>, and remember <strong>RICE (rest, ice, compression, and elevation)<\/strong> and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (aka NSAIDs, like <strong>Aspirin and ibuprofen<\/strong>) are the preferred treatment for all soft tissue injuries (sprains, strains, contusions, bumps, and bruises).<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sideshow Bob: [chuckling] Mr. Simpson, you are forgetting the first two noble truths of the Buddha. Homer Simpson: I am not! For those who slept through Buddhism 101\u2014or failed to see The Simpsons Episode 8F20 (season three, episode 21, first aired April 9, 1992)\u2014the First Noble Truth of the Buddha is this: There is suffering.\u00a0 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2017\/05\/skateboarding-lesson-0-the-first-noble-truth\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;SKATEBOARDING LESSON 0: The First Noble Truth&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_share_on_mastodon":"1"},"categories":[11,99,8],"tags":[52,103,33,21,77,35,36,100,86,101,102,31],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1367"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1372,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367\/revisions\/1372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}