Like so many others, I have developed a pretty extensive collection of hobbies in my short 27 years on earth. My most recent hobby -as readers of this blog are well aware – has been surfing and in the 2 short years that I have had it in my life it has become a pretty central passion, one that I hope proves to be more than a mere blip in the story of me. I was fortunate enough to get some time out in the water this weekend and as usual I found time to reflect on my own thoughts.
Each of my passions have either served as a teaching example for an important facet of life or provided me with a metaphor for life in general, allowing me the opportunity to pull out whatever lessons I was able to interpret. It dawned on me while surfing that this is likely the case for all of us and it is likely what encourages us to fixate on a small number of activities – sometimes so intensely that other areas of life are forgotten or ignored. I guess the reality is this: it is far easy to conquer a metaphor for life than life itself.
Likely born out of my passion to my hobbies, I have always felt like they presented a glimpse of life in general. With water polo it seemed pretty clear. Success was largely determined by the work that went in. Training was difficult but the rewards seemed to pay out. Like other team sports there was often that goal of achieving more as a team than the sum of the parts – that sneaking suspicion that a mystical energy can be created by the harnessing of individual talents into a team effort.
Of course, like so many things in life there were obvious problems. Some seemed to be blessed with far too much natural talent – and it frustrated me (and others) that what took us hours of hard work to achieve took others no more than minimal input. Later I learned that this is true of all things in life, although lately I have begun to question even that basic rule in the place of another: sometimes the people who seem to have it easiest face challenges and obstacles you could not begin to imagine.
Perhaps the most intruiging thing about water polo is that so much of the sport takes place out of the eyeline of others. Each player, just like each person in society, is faced with the dilemma of how far to push things in their favor against what the rules allow. Some take great liberties, others respect the game and the rules and stay within the boundaries of the game. Just like in life, some of those that cheat get away with it and we learn that sometimes the “winners” often achieve that status through means that others would not even contemplate.
With any luck, in water polo or life in general you find your little niche and you determine your balance of hard work and payoff and of respect for the game and what falls in your favor. Happiness is relevant and some players are happy with one win – others only happy with 50 wins. I found similar feelings in surifng and perhaps that is what drew me to it.
I found water polo at a time in my life where I was attempting to learn what it took to be “successful” in life. How to get into a college, how to win a job, how to earn money etc. I suppose the lessons that water polo seemed to teach were particualiry apt for that time in my life and I imagine this was a large function of the pull I felt to the sport. Soon enough I realized that success and happiness were not necessarily the same thing and that among the lessons water polo provided there was no insight into the more meaningful areas of life. I am happy to say that surfing provides that.
There were many mornings – especially in the beginning – where it seemed exceptionally painful to pull myself out of a warm bed, jump into the freezing cold water, and get beat up by an endless barrage of waves. But every morning I got up and did it. I spent hours upon hours with my teeth chattering, my arms aching and tired, and my nose running – all for a few seconds of bliss. The more I practiced and the more work that went into my hobby then those seconds of bliss turned into minutes – but no matter how much improvement came the ratio of work to bliss stayed pretty top heavy. But that ratio is the same one we all face in life. We all spend our time paddling in the cold, putting ourselves through hardship just for chance of those few seconds of bliss: marriage, family vacations, holidays, grandkids and anything else that puts a smile on our face. Maybe we need the hardship to appreciate the bliss. Or maybe there is a spiritual presence in this world who just wants to see us earn it. Either way it seems to be a simple formula and ever since I began surfing I find myself far more accepting of all the paddling we have to do.
There was a time when I was starting out with surfing that I watched the professionals and the really good surfers catching waves and dreamed that one day that could be me. I was like the 18 year old kid who looked out and saw a whole world out there and decided that one day it would be his. But like so often in life, a couple of years in I have found my relative niche. I like my spot on the outside of the line-up. Enough waves to keep me happy, not so many that I have to sacrifice other areas of my life to keep up. I hope that’s a lesson I can always remember.
I don’t know what the future holds for me and my surfing passion. Perhaps other hobbies will present themselves or perhaps surfing will continue to provide the insight needed to make life seem easier. Either way, it has helped me recognize some very important lessons that I hope all eventually learn – through whatever means get them there. There is a whole ocean of experiences out there that we are all a part of. Sure, it may seem that some are catching more waves or perhaps lucky enough to find bigger waves but hopefully we can find peace in the waves we get. Surfing has helped me do that. Sometimes complicated things simply need to be broken down to a level where the answers are a little more obvious. Few things are as complicated as life; thankfully we have our hobbies there to make things seem just a little simpler.
