Page 131 - THE ENDLESS WAVE | Skateboarding, Death & Spirituality

THE ENDLESS WAVE | PART TWO
Skateboarders and Suicide
Before we go any further, I do acknowledge that suicide is a sensitive topic that can have a large impact on those close to the person that has taken their own life. Through this topic, I would like to debunk some of the myths around suicide and explore it through the metaphor of focussing your skateboard; when one deliberately and continually stomps in the middle of the skateboard to break it.
Suicide takes place over a drawn out process and is the end of the line for someone who has been experiencing a range of overwhelming and stressful emotions towards their life over a prolonged period of time. Usually a suicide takes place when the person has had these kinds of overwhelming emotional experiences built up without healthy ways to address and process these and they feel like they can no longer cope with the conditions that they are facing in their lives. It is an escape from these experiences with the intention of not coming back. It’s an exit from their present state of experiencing life.
Focussing a skateboard has its parallels. Perhaps you may have focussed your skateboard during times when you felt like skating was not working out for you, you were feeling the frustration of not landing a trick at a spot, you had an injury, like your board hitting a previously cut up wound on your Shins. However you may have experienced this and the deliberate end to the lifespan of your skateboard, I’m going to assume that there was a build up and a desire
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