Shambhala Mt Center, CO

I was invited by a friend/fellow Obama campaigner to stay at the Shambhala Mountain Center, which is high in the Mountains of Colorado. We were able to stay in exchange for polishing a giant brass door.

The first day we went on a hike and it was really cold. I mean it was about 25 degrees f before the sun set and all I could think about was eating. Each meal I would stuff my face with the maximum amount of food and two hours later I would be starving again.

There was a library where we could read books on the meaning of life. There was also a temple like building called a Stupa. We meditated in the Stupa under a giant gold Buddha. I realized that the closest thing I have to a meditative practice in my life is skateboarding, and for that I just wanted to give thanks to skateboarding, I mean for taking up so much of my brain space.

I mean think about all of the time you are thinking about skateboarding when you might otherwise be thinking about your waining sex appeal or about how your friends never call you or how your social life sucks or how your parents screwed you up or how you're not good at school or work or how the world is coming to an end... I mean the endless chatter in our brains that distracts and torments...

... and how easy it is to get on a skateboard or put in a skate video and just focus on that, and only think about that, and obsess about that, while everything else falls into the void.

Praise the Board.