Brought this to work in my pocket today. It is from my “Dalai Lama Quote per Day” Calendar, and it was just so good, I couldn’t leave it sitting on top my dishwasher:
“Merely thinking that compassion and reason and patience are good will not be enough to develop them. We must wait for difficulties to arise and then attempt to practice them.”
That Dalai Lama… you gotta love him and his big smiling heart.

Hard to believe the weekend has already rolled around again! Nathan and I went to an Outlaw race in Britannia Beach (near Squamish, on Hwy 99) last weekend. It was fun; there was enough safety and control involved so that I wasn’t entirely freaked out. I volunteered on one of the corners, and waved the speedboarders through if it was safe to proceed (it always was). Nate’s Switchback team member, Jeremy Banting, came in third in the race. I found this highly amusing, because the name “Banting” has the ring of authority in the Speedboarding circles (at least as far as I know… which isn’t very far)… and Jeremy… well. Jeremy just doesn’t strike me as a figure of authority. More a figure of comedy; the straight-man to Kelsey’s wild card. I didn’t put “Jeremy” and “Banting” together until last weekend. (go to http://www.switchbacklongboards.com/ and click on ‘Team’ to see the guys I am talking about. I don’t think they have many groupies yet, so they’ll gladly accept a few more).

I like it when the events are good clean fun, like last weekend’s race. The longboarders are mostly respectful and informative to curious passerby and interlopers. But then you get the occasional assholic personality, and they ruin it for the other guys (and girls). The big championships in Maryhill WA saw some of those badass people, and now the nearby town no longer wants to have anything to do with speedboaring events. I mean—these smalltown people opened up their hearts, volunteered, let these guys (and girls) camp, provided facilities for them, even fed them all breakfast… and then a few narrow-minded individuals went and spray painted graffiti and broke mirrors and tipped sculptures, and generally caused thousands of dollars of damage, and irreparably damaged the relationship between the townsfolk and the speedboarders. I mean, who wants to open their doors to hoodlums?

I’ll continue to support the speedboarders, but only the nice ones who don’t say the F-word in front of children, and take the time to educate the skeptics. No point in hating the haters… they only hate what they fear. So erase the fear with knowledge, and you erase the hate. Hey speedboarders: listen to the Dalai Lama, yo.

This weekend Nate and I are heading up to see mom in Kaleden. I’m hoping that I’ll have some free time to say—go for breakfast at White Spot with some of my home-town homies. 10 am Saturday morning? See you there!