The best are like water,
bringing help to all without competing.
Choosing what others avoid,
they thus approach the Tao.

The Tao Te Ching - Verse 8
(Translated by Red Pine)
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Yesterday I did a thing: I bought a surfboard.

I just bought one (used of course, I’m not a madman). But it didn’t even occur to me until afterward that maybe I should rent one first, or take a lesson to see if I might like it. Those thoughts didn’t sink in until after it was running the length of my SUV, partially blocking the view out my window on the way to the beach, without checking to see if it was even high tide.

It wasn’t. But I went in and floated around like a noob for a while anyway. That is, after the lifeguard blew his whistle at me saying I could only surf on the other side of the pier. (How embarrassing.)

It felt a bit like wrestling an alligator at first. (As far as I know, wrestling alligators isn’t a prerequisite for surfing, but as someone who’s never taken lessons, don’t take my word for it.)

I also felt like an idiot foundering around on a surfboard at low tide in front of a bunch of random people. I kept wondering, “What is everyone thinking about me right now?” Then I realized they’re not, that nobody cares. And if they were, it was probably something along the lines of, “Huh. There’s a guy with a surfboard.” Or even if they were thinking, “Look at that idiot floundering about on a surfboard at low tide,” who cares.

The timing in life for impulsively floundering around on a surfboard at low tide just felt right, ya know?

The timing didn’t feel so right when I was living in Colorado, ya know?

Then people would’ve been justified in thinking, “What is this idiot doing floundering about on a surfboard,” ya know?

After that thought popped into my head, I felt a little less foolish. I felt a little more like a random guy at the beach struggling on a surfboard, because that’s where us random guys with surfboards go:
To the beach.
To struggle.
To fight the good fight.
To commit ourselves to impulse buys that should’ve been rentals.
To choose failing in front of strangers like others might avoid.
To willingly drip down toward the lowest of places.
To approach the Tao with the yielding nature of water.

Ya know?