the predatory bird

Author: Rat of NIMH

  • Why So Sad? Summer ’22 | Post 3

    This is the third of three essays.

    Summer ’22 Essay 1

    Summer ’22 Essay 2

    A collage of various sad grab photographs

    Why So Sad? Encourage Self-help and Other Support Strategies

    “People underestimate their own therapeutic powers…The most powerful buffer in times of stress and distress is our social connectedness…” —Bruce Perry

    Key Concept: Being “well regulated”, being “dysregulated”, what that means & what we can do about it

    October 1990.

    My dad gives me the Beastie Boys album Paul’s Boutique for my 13th birthday. He passes it to me over the edge of his hospital bed.

    “I’ll take you fishing this summer, John,” he promises. (more…)

  • Why So Sad? Summer ’22 | Post 2

    (This is the second in a series. You can find Essay 1 here)

    Heads up, this essay discusses the topics of depression and suicidal thoughts.

    Natas Kaupus Melonchollie Grabs over a California Schoolyard Hip in the late 80s or early 90s Photo By Grant Britain
    Natas Kaupus Melonchollie Grab by Grant Britain

    Why So Sad? What happened to me is not my fault

    We’ve talked about how we all have different experiences growing up while our brains are developing. As our brains take in that vast array of childhood experiences, automatic stress-responses get set up. It’s a good thing for survival. Bear attack does not warrant time to reflect poetically. To survive, your body needs to respond like lightening. So, over time patterns get impressed into our brains. Signals from our senses are attached to appropriate levels of stress response. Brain senses unfamiliar dog growl, or the rattle of a viper’s tail? Danger alert! Deploy adrenaline, action stations! This is great in many situations, but we have also developed our highway-laced, fossil-fueled, cheap-abundant booze-filled, internet-connected world faster than evolution can keep up. In this new environment these same systems can become what we call “maladaptive”.

    Here’s an example: for me (more…)

  • Why So Sad? Summer ’22 | Post 1

     

    John Rattray, Frontside Melonchollie Grab—aka Sad Grab—in Winnipeg Canada circa 2011
    John Rattray, Frontside Melancholy—aka Sad Grab— in Winnipeg, Canada, c2012. Photo by Jamie Thomas

     

    Why So Sad?

    Exploring How Childhood Experiences Affect Our Brain’s Response to the Stresses of Adult Life  

    10-minute read:

    May 8, 2022: Heads up, this story touches on the subject of suicide. If you, or someone you know, is going through a mental health crisis please reach out to your local support line.

    Section 1: The Thing that Hurts You So…

    Early in 2018, seven years after Katrina died, I was eating lunch alone.

    The good thing about being alone is it affords you time to quietly learn. Today I’m eating ramen noodles while listening to a conversation with Dr Rangan Chattergee and Johann Hari, author of Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression and the Unexpected Solutions.

    The reason I’m listening to this conversation, and the reason I’d read Hari’s book in the first place and found it so helpful, was because Katrina, my sister, died by suicide.

    Right after that, in 2011, I travel back to Scotland to be with mum (more…)

  • Why So Sad? x Actions REALized

    Photo by Ari Landon Morris

    To date, over the course of the Good Egg 1 & 2, and the 2019 Why So Sad? Mission, we’ve raised around $13,000 for SAMH, Grassroots Suicide Prevention and the Johns Hopkins research into treatment of major depression. For this next phase, we’ll be helping out Rob, Susie and Lucy push forward with their work in 2020 at The Ben Raemers Foundation.

    To that end, Real Skateboards have been kind enough to partner up on a run of boards that we’ve made based on 1) the art that Jon Horner so skillfully provided, 2) a top graphic collage comprised of a decent selection of the photos that you all sent in over the course of the campaign; and a little inscription: Read on…

  • Fixer Skateboard Co. : Where’s Georgie?

    An underground team of Pacific Northwest skate fugitives search for their friend George.

    Featuring: Timothy Coolidge, Ryan Lutz, Johnny Turgeson, George Silver, Philipp Stern, Marc O’Malley.

    Filmed by Brendon Hupp.

  • Shralp for Ben: Carl Harling’s Mission for the Ben Raemers Foundation

    Carl Harling riding his bike with his board strapped to the basket on a mission for mental health in memory of Ben Raemers
    Carl Harling riding his bike with his board strapped to the basket on a mission for mental health in memory of Ben Raemers

    Details of the ongoing Why So Sad? mission for mental health can be found here.

    Read on for a conversation with Carl Harling who is riding his bike and skating his way down the west coast in memory of Ben Raemers and in aid of the Ben Raemers Foundation… Read on…

  • Why So Sad? A conversation with Auby Taylor

    Auby Taylor Sad Plants at a Texas vert ramp.
    Auby Taylor, Sad Plant. Photo by Patric Backlund

    Participate in the Why So Sad fundraising mission for mental health…

    You can find all the details on how to contribute to, and participate in, the Why So Sad? 2019 mission for mental health… here.

    Warning:

    The following post explores the subject of depression and suicide. If you do not want to read about that, please don’t read on.

    A CONVERSATION WITH AUBY TAYLOR:

    Themes:

    • The importance of talking openly about issues of depression and anxiety.
    • The inner-critic we all have a version of.
    • Fitting in, or not, in the California skate industry.
    • The importance of being able to know and express our true selves.
      • Especially the painful parts.
    • The process of unlearning certain conditioned thinking.

    Context:

    The WhySoSad? mission for mental health is the third annual fundraiser I’ve organized in memory of my sister, Katrina, and now more recently, tragically, in memory of Ben Raemers also. But it’s really in memory of every loved one we’ve ever lost to depression and its worst-case…completely unnecessary…tough-but-avoidable side-effect…suicide.

    So part of the mission is that I’ll ride my bike many miles and do my own Sad Plant (hopefully finally approved by the grand–masters) and also I’ve been collecting photos of Sad Plants from skaters around the world…I think to ultimately make a collage, or create a show or something.

    In the course of collecting photos of Sad Plants from skaters who can already do, or have recently learned Sad Plants, I’ve had some great messaging going back and forth. One of the best interactions I’ve had has been with Texan transitional-terrorizer, Auby Taylor. Read on…

  • Why So Sad? 2019 Mission for Mental Health

    In memory of my sister, Katrina, and pro-skater Ben Raemers, I plan on riding my bike 100 miles and finally — in my early 40s — doing my first proper Sad Plant. All money raised gets split between three good organizations doing some of the best work to reduce depression and provide access to tools, knowledge and services to improve our mental health. Read on…