Skateboarding and imagination

I don't skateboard, but my 'little brother' does. So I take him to the skate park usually once a month or so. He's not very good but he enjoys it.

One of the things I like about the skating culture is that it's free-spirited. And, perhaps surprisingly given the reputation skating has in 'respectable' circles, the culture strikes me as fairly collegial. It also requires perseverance, something that's not a bad thing to learn in a country where instant gratification is a central value.

Kids today spend so much time in front of screens that many of them have no idea how use their imagination. And forget this generation gap canard. It's little different with adults. Witness how my colleagues treat me as quite the oddball because I often lie on the grass and engage in the eccentric activity of reading a book or... even more incomprehensibly, just relaxing and looking at the sky.

So the other reason I respect skating as an activity more than a lot of people is that really stimulates creativity and imagination. It's an fascinating fusion of being around others and expressing yourself.

I was thinking about this yesterday when my 'little brother' and I were walking home from the skate park and stopped inside the local children's bookstore.

In addition to books, they also have various toys for sale and for use. One of the ones they have for kids to play with is a simple racing car track. Not for battery-powered cars, but just for the small metal ones like Hot Wheels.

A little kid sat down at this track and picked up one of the Hot Wheels and with a befuddled look, asked his mom, "How do you start this thing?"

I chuckled a little bit, until I realized how sad it was.