Just a continuation of a thought initially expressed on our Instagram…
When this photo was taken, there were no ball-bearing yoyo’s. No aluminum yoyo’s or recessed silicone response. No whips, no rejections, no suicides. (Slack technically existed, but was to be avoided at all costs.) No poly, nylon, or kevlar string. No YouTube tutorials or #trickcircle. No forums, no Yoyonews.com, no YoYoExpert. No KWOS or Sector_Y. No 30-second sideways fingerspin combos or… ok, ANY combos. No Nats. No Worlds. The best players didn’t make it look hard – they made it look easy…
When this was taken, yo-yoing was just playing with a yo-yo, trying to see what was possible.
That part hasn’t changed, and neither has the fun…
We have a tendency to believe in “glory days” (and to long desperately for them). Especially as we age, and our lives seem beset by dense thickets of obligations – both real and imaginary – we believe that there was once a simpler time when we were carefree and full of promise. I remember being a kid, though (maybe continuing to yo-yo has helped me in this regard). I wasn’t really carefree. I was engaged – constantly, actively seeking the next scheme to have fun. And when I found it, I would just be IN it. And it would pass. When we remember our past with nostalgia, I don’t think we remember the warmth of some idyllic, blithely youthful sunshine. What we remember (and what we long for) is just a time when we lived in the moment. I think that’s why yo-yoing appeals to people. It insists that you live in a moment (or whack yourself).
I look at this photo and think about what our company was like when it was just starting out. How different the landscape of our expressive art form was then. My favorite part of this photograph is the disembodied No Jive on the right side, being thrown by someone out of view. By the slack in the string, you can tell that the yo-yo is just about to snap back to his or her hand. But in this image, it has been frozen; captured like this fleeting instant within yo-yoing’s past. It feels as though back then, there must have been nothing but opportunity, and that now yo-yoing and our lives HAVE snapped back; crystallized into something permanent. It feels like we are stuck. But we aren’t.
There is still time. There is still hope. The glory days never betrayed us. The moment never betrayed us – they’re still here. It’s Fixed Friday. Grab a No Jive. Grab a Lightning. Grab any yo-yo you want and throw down. Throw down and give yourself a second to forget. Forget about your job. Forget about your mortgage. Forget about all that you’ve got and all that you don’t. Forget the moment. Forget about forgetting. Just THROW DOWN and let a trick take over. See what’s possible. Life will still be waiting for you just as soon as the yo-yo hits your palm.
There aren’t simple times or complex times. There are people who take some time and ALLOW it to be simple. People who play. There aren’t glory days, either. There are moments, and people willing to set glory aside and just delight to be in them.
Happy Friday! Enjoy the weekend!