Love Is... A Chaotic Thing

              Last week, Rachel, Onan and I found ourselves at a skateboarding park a few kilometers from our house. For a while now, Rachel and I have been pushing Onan to try different extracurriculars so that he might find an outdoor activity to draw him away from the almighty screen. Like many children nowadays, our son seems more enthusiastic about electronic devices than anything else. We have done our best to help him develop an interest in something a little more active than the digit calisthenics he strives for. Soccer. Basketball. Badminton. Swimming. Jogging. Hiking. Guitar picking. Snowboarding. Skiing. We have tried them all. Unfortunately, they have all been met with a fairly resounding thbbbttt. Well, that’s not true. He was quite keen on snowboarding. He actually got pretty good at it during our winter trips to Japan. But therein lies the rub. We can only partake in winter activities where there is snow. There isn’t any in Taiwan. And so, rather than giving up, and allowing him to be washed away by the electrical current of today’s generation, we decided to give skateboarding a try.

              Being honest, I had never actually been in a skatepark before last weekend. Oops. Another untruth. I did walk by one last summer whilst taking my mother out for a stroll. But it was empty. The vibe there was so different. Without any skaters to bring the ramps and rails alive, there was no vibe. It was just a vacant lot. The park we walked into last Saturday, however, was something different. The boys, girls, men, and women whipping around on their boards and scooters brought that place to a different level. It was electric. It was so much more than anything I had expected.

              One of the first surprises that really took me aback was the fact that although phones were present, nobody was on them. No one. Well. Shit. Another fib. I was. I was perched up on the levee that bordered the back of the park playing paparazzi for my son. Everyone else, though – they were focused on what they were doing. On nailing that trick. Making that jump. Finding the flow. It was amazing. I must admit that at that moment I felt a little embarrassed at having my phone in front of my face. So, I put it away and just watched. I forced myself to sit and just be in the present. And that was when the magic happened.

              Almost instantly, I began to notice the cacophony of sounds that echoed around the park filling the empty spaces with a hypnotic rhythm. The disorder of wheels slamming, sneakers scuffling, boards snapping and rails screeching blended into a chaotic symphony of motion, passion and drive. I sat staring for more than a few minutes in a trancelike state. Watching in awe as these strangers – Strangers to me. Strangers to each other. – danced around. No competition. No confrontation. Just focus. Everyone there was sharing in this moment. Together. Live. With no distractions. It was a beautiful thing.

              I’d like to say with confidence that we will be spending a few hours each weekend enjoying everything that that park has to offer, but that too would be a lie. Based upon Onan’s track record, I am less than optimistic that he will continue skateboarding much past the four lessons in which he was enrolled. And that’s okay. We will keep trying. Onan will find something. Of that, I am sure. However, for me, those moments shed a few rays of light into the pessimistic darkness that has been plaguing me for the past little while. For me, it was enough.

Love is…a chaotic thing.