Dancing About Architecture

It has been said (by some jazz cat, maybe Miles Davis) that talking about music is like dancing about architecture, and I think maybe the same could be said for blogging about surfing. When that guy said that, he was pointing out that there is a deep emotional and spiritual dimension to music that defies verbal description, and I imagine the same is true of surfing.
But people do try. I mentioned in my last post the cosmic surfer dudes that sexwax philosophical about the spiritual connection with the ocean. A new blog buddy I discovered (also from here in Texas) left a friendly comment seconding the opinion that there is a deeper dimension and connection with nature that is one of the factors that makes surfing such an obsession with lots of people.
But he also brought up another factor that enters into my fascination. The Lifestyle. The sun, sand, wind and waves. The hammocks. The bare bones adventure trips. The comraderie of brother surfers. And yes, the beer.
And, as a young single guy, he has the opportunity to explore that territory to its fullest limits, if he's willing to make the sacrifice of the presumably more comfortable lifestyle afforded by a regular job in a regular city. Meanwhile, I am 42 years old and married, left at this point of my life with more responsibilities than dreams.
And that's okay. I'm healthy and in good physical shape. I have a lot to be grateful for, and don't think for one minute that 42 year olds have no dreams left at all. Even better, experience has taught me that it is better to have a goal than to have a dream. If you only knew how many lives have been crushed under the weight of the dreams that never came true, and instead settled down on their shoulders, big disappointing boulders of bitter regret. Now, more so than when I was a younger man, I think things through a little better, and I make plans with a definite path to fulfillment. The dreams themselves are usually a bit smaller, but infinitely more attainable. And I love my wife to a degree that leaves any sort of resentment completely out of the picture. My dreams have to include hers as well, so the cold fact is that there will be a lot of missed waves in my future, but I'll still do what I can, and enjoy what I do.
For me, the fascination with the full on surfer's lifestyle will likely remain one exercized from afar. I can chat online with people who pop around from San Onofre to Peru like its no big deal. I can watch surf movies with surfers carving up the tubes from Australia to Indonesia. I can ride my couch in a surfer's crouch and keep the tube tuned to Fuel TV. I can even listen to my Donovan Frankenrieter, Jack Johnson and Slightly Stoopid CDs. All of those things have the potential to make me feel like I'm somehow connected with a group of people who know something the rest of the world doesn't.
It's the same with my band. Just because I can't be a rock star doesn't mean I can't act like one on the weekend. I have a piece of that lifestyle, that aesthetic, that feeling inside me, and it's no less real just because I wear shiny lace up shoes and a button down shirt from Monday to Friday. I can still wail on the mic and turn my telecaster up to 11. And nobody said I have to wear shoes when I'm not at work.
But until Labor Day Weekend, when my first surfing lesson is scheduled, I won't really be a full on part of anything in the wide world of surfing. I won't really know anything. But when that time comes, I want to know as much as I can, so that I can take the maximum advantage of the time I have to get out there.
And I may be a bit premature with my blogging about something I haven't really started yet, but I'm learning some interesting things in the lead up, and hopefully, I'll have some interesting things to say from an outsider's viewpoint. I think it will really be interesting to see how (or if) my viewpoint changes after I get out there and make the goal a reality.
After all, it may be a little crazy, but nobody ever said that you can't dance about architecture if you want to.