Brighten Your Day

It has been a while since I have found inspiration to write. It is too easy to write without having real perspective or purpose thus creating something bland without any true insight. Recently I have been running into late-teens-early-20’s nostalgia. College, friends lost, things I should’ve done and others I probably shouldn’t have. Though this is not a unique phenomenon, I recently read an article on the Jackass crew (MTV show) and where they are today and it made me think hard about how life changes so rapidly as we grow old and how easy the present is to take for granted.

I will pre-text this for those who are unfamiliar with the CKY/Jackass lineage quickly. CKY was formed by a group of young men (late teens early 20’s) who, for lack of better words, had way too much destructive creativity and love to film it all. Mind you this was before it was commonplace to have a video recorder and pre-dated a lot of “reality” television. The CKY movies came long before the Jackass show and depicted a group of pranksters, troublemakers, skaters but most of all friends. From physical stuns, outlandish pranks or just being plain gross; there was never a doubts that they just wanted to entertain each other. They were not doing this for anyone but themselves and that is what made it so charming. Agree or disagree with their antics, you could see it was unabated no-fucks-given fun for them.

The CKY movies were crude and often lewd but growing up and watching these video, I envied them. I watched them do things that were simply crazy to me. I saw a group that I could associate with; a group who was always looking for that next fix, the next adventure, or the next outlandish thing to one–up each other. All without thinking of the bodily damage or consequences that said action could bring. The CKY videos (and to a lesser extent the Jackass show) for this reason, hold a really special place in my heart. It reminds me how new I was to life’s experiences and how deep bonds form with friends, some I still have an others I may never see again.

Come 2016 and the Jackass/CKY crew is in their mid-to-late 30’s and for a group that seemed invincible and young forever, are reminding me of the inevitability of life. Substance and/or pill abuse has caught some, having a family and growing up caught others, and un-timely deaths yet others. Aspects of life that are simply unavoidable that grant you a new perspective on what you had and what you have. With this knowledge, you slowly start to lose that care free attitude and are forced to learn lessons that you cannot unlearn.

Life is not so black and white. I can imagine that the CKY group looks back fondly on the overall experience and would love to go back and relive some of the times of their youth but I also think age has probably granted them some perspective. As fantastic as it must have been growing up with the fame and as much as they may want to re-visit their youth, I can only assume that there is part of their inner being that is happy it is all over and some sense of normality can be regained.

That brings me to today. After my wife and I had old friends over to our home, the reminiscing and the reliving of old times is just that, “reliving”. Gone are the days of stealing 20 ft rugs from the local sub-shop, gone are the days of marathon drinking and waking up outside and gone are the days of just skipping class or work to go enjoy a nice day. Going on Facebook is more a practice in seeing what friends have Newborn instead of screwing with someone’s status for a quick laugh.

As desperately as I would like to go back and re-live some parts of the past, I am also really glad life’s gears are forcing me to evolve. I still have so many friends who I wish I could see more regularly and some I wish I could bring back but that is not how life works. Life moves forward and if you don’t move with it you will get stuck in the gears. We often we can catch ourselves looking back and we forget to appreciate the moment we are currently in and how unique and beautiful that will be to us ten years from now.

So, as much as I want another CKY video, I know it would not be the same. No one wants to see mid-30’s doing late teen stuff. That ship has sailed. I guess all we can do is not lose that sense of adventure because we are too busy looking back at the shore we came from. Understanding that we are not losing anything but gaining more as we move to the horizon.