CHRISTIAN BEAMISH

choke hold last week after threatening other passengers. I wasn’t there of course – I don’t know what actually happened. But a reporter quoted witnesses saying the man was yelling about being hungry and thirsty, about needing to sleep.

You can imagine the scene: the guy’s smelly clothes, a wild look on his face. But I can’t help wondering about another way the situation could have gone down: what if the people on the subway offered the man a water bottle and a sandwich when he screamed about being hungry and thirsty?

Again: I wasn’t there, I don’t know what happened. But it’s easy to picture a train car full of people ignoring a raving man, pretending he’s not there. It would be enough to drive one fully insane – to be ignored when one’s life had gotten to such a desperate place.

How does this relate to a monthly

Family time

It’s a delicate dance, this life we’re tasked with living: we must both give people space when they need it, and then at other times get closer than we might be comfortable with.

The thing I love most about shaping (aside from the freedom to think and listen to music while enjoying the symmetrical planer cuts on the foam), is the design challenge of creating surfboards for particular waves and experiences. Similarly, it is possible to “shape” our outlook on life, to equip ourselves emotionally and spiritually for the demands of our time and circumstances.

In “Redemption Song” Bob Marley sings, “Have no fear for atomic energy, ‘cause none of them can stop the time…” It’s not an endorsement for nuclear power of course, but an expression of faith in humanity and a sense, I think, that we are not alone in the universe, and that if we try, we can indeed find strength and help in our higher power, or – I’ll just come out and say it – in God.

It’s a delicate dance, this life we’re tasked with living: we must both give people space when they need it, and then at other times get closer than we might be comfortable with. And it’s not something AI can help us with. Computer-enhanced intelligence couldn’t have helped the man on the subway, but somebody’s ham sandwich might have.

Christian Beamish took leave of his position at Coastal View News in October 2020, to pursue his surfboard business, “Surfboards California,” full time. He continues his monthly column, and shapes at the surfboard factory showroom at 500 Maple Ave., in Carpinteria. The former Associate Editor of The Surfer’s Journal, Beamish is also the author of “Voyage of the Cormorant,” (Patagonia Books, 2012) about his single-handed expedition down the coast of Baja California by sail and oar in his self-built Shetland Isle beach boat. He now lives with his wife and two children in Ventura.