Another time of many but this one sticks in my mind like a blood clot.
I had just turned 18, Caleb was still 17. We had a couple dollars between us, skateboards and backpacks jammed with sleeping bags. About a week earlier we had skated out of Santa Cruz, California in the middle of the night. We we're bound for Baja, Mexico. Little did we know then, it would be the best and the worst adventure of our lives.
The evening was cool after a blistering and arid day of skating and hitch-hiking. We were sitting on a stone wall above Mulege, over looking the Sea of Cortez. It was a rare, still and tranquil moment in this out of control and turbid time. I can still see it so clear. The sun was low and lit only the tips of the distant rocks. Rooster crows and muddled voices carried from the village below. So much had happened in the last week and we were seething with the experience. To see us then, we would be dirty, happy and wearing shit eating grins. We swore out loud to the cactus, rocks and the twilight. A hand shake and an honest pledge: "We'll do this forever!". I knew I wasn't joking when I made that promise, naive as it was. All it simply meant was- Lets always live to chase down the good times in this short life. Wander free and far experiencing the unexpected. Pitch ourselves into the wind and see it all at face value. Charge into the unknown and feel its embrace when we crash through the other side, intact and euphoric. Never would we sit idle, afraid and lazy. We could do anything and go anywhere.
Caleb and I did a lot more traveling and stupid things together. Maybe one day I'll put it in print. But life happens, years went by and we went on to do our separate things. We always hung out on the occasion when I was in town. He became an auto mechanic, had a wife and some children. He was a good dude, always meaning well and loved by us all.
When he passed away, that old promise was seared all the deeper into my heart. That simple oath said without description between two pals. 20 years old now but a part of my everyday life. For all that I do, in search of those magical and epic moments. He is right there, with the same blissful shit eating grin.
I had just turned 18, Caleb was still 17. We had a couple dollars between us, skateboards and backpacks jammed with sleeping bags. About a week earlier we had skated out of Santa Cruz, California in the middle of the night. We we're bound for Baja, Mexico. Little did we know then, it would be the best and the worst adventure of our lives.
The evening was cool after a blistering and arid day of skating and hitch-hiking. We were sitting on a stone wall above Mulege, over looking the Sea of Cortez. It was a rare, still and tranquil moment in this out of control and turbid time. I can still see it so clear. The sun was low and lit only the tips of the distant rocks. Rooster crows and muddled voices carried from the village below. So much had happened in the last week and we were seething with the experience. To see us then, we would be dirty, happy and wearing shit eating grins. We swore out loud to the cactus, rocks and the twilight. A hand shake and an honest pledge: "We'll do this forever!". I knew I wasn't joking when I made that promise, naive as it was. All it simply meant was- Lets always live to chase down the good times in this short life. Wander free and far experiencing the unexpected. Pitch ourselves into the wind and see it all at face value. Charge into the unknown and feel its embrace when we crash through the other side, intact and euphoric. Never would we sit idle, afraid and lazy. We could do anything and go anywhere.
Caleb and I did a lot more traveling and stupid things together. Maybe one day I'll put it in print. But life happens, years went by and we went on to do our separate things. We always hung out on the occasion when I was in town. He became an auto mechanic, had a wife and some children. He was a good dude, always meaning well and loved by us all.
When he passed away, that old promise was seared all the deeper into my heart. That simple oath said without description between two pals. 20 years old now but a part of my everyday life. For all that I do, in search of those magical and epic moments. He is right there, with the same blissful shit eating grin.
beautiful
ReplyDeleteSo many years passed..but I'll never forget that grin of yours nub. I love you
ReplyDelete