Who do I still think I am??

This one's about love, American style.

30DBC PROMPT: "If you could be 13 years old again, (in this time period) would you?"

'Sup playas? An incredibly thought-provoking prompt in today's "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" . The easy answer to this is a resounding "HELL NO!" But far be it from me to take the easy way out, hit the "Save Entry" button, and be done with it for another day. I can't in good conscience go out like that.

The age thirteen is an awkward year for everyone. It's a collision between the innocence of youth and the realities of the world we live in. To paraphrase The Get Up Kids (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwaiSvohO6Y), we're old enough to know better but young enough to pretend. While everything tends to look better through the gift of hindsight when colored by nostalgia, I think I can safely say that I'd almost rather not relive my days spent being thirteen.

Note the italics.

I rode a black 24" Huffy mountain bike emblazoned with a Stalker insignia, long before "stalking" became something criminals did. More often than not, I could be seen wearing a pair of spandex shorts in support of my junk the New York Mets. Every day was a new adventure playing baseball wherever we could set up a diamond and assemble enough people to play a game (right field is an automatic out!). The spray-painted strike box on the garage of the place abutted by the Randolph fire hall parking lot was my best friend, and occasionally I'd cheat on it in my grandmother's backyard where there were two tires set up against what looked like the hood of a car leaning against the garage. I thought I could be the next best pitcher of my generation, like my baseball hero, Dwight Gooden http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_Gooden. I didn't have the tee-ball or Little League pedigree my real friends had; just the self-taught skills that come from watching games on tv and putting them to use in pick-up games. In that respect alone, it was a typical average American boy's childhood where everything was proven on the playing field.

What I really wanna know is how come my formative years were spent watching "Happy Days", when I really should've been watching this instead (if I was gonna learn anything about life): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3DpTs-iV7U. Where was the guidance? How come I wasn't a part of this show's viewing back in the day? Why was it not rerunned to death like "Chico And The Man" and "Starsky And Hutch", or "Three's Company"?

My best experience at the age of thirteen is one I'll consider to be the best album of all time. Teased, were we, by the Beastie Boys' "Love American Style" EP that I was fortunate to own on cassette after their huge commercial breakthrough a few years before. "Paul's Boutique" (link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK-8XI1Tk4g}) became the soundtrack to many nights spent in my room after a long day of ballin' and bikin' in Cheektowaga. There was never an album like it before, and there will never be another one. Say what you will about some of the greatest bands in the history of music, but damn son, when corny whiteboy rappers can pull off sampling the Beatles' most beloved album http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM32R91KMDc, you have no choice but to take notice. In this day and age, it would cost millions to recreate legally what they did sonically.

As for me, I went the Terry Leach route http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Leach with baseball and tried pitching sidearm, which ruined any chance of me having a decent pitching motion. Breaking my right shoulder a couple of times didn't help matters much. But I'll always have one of the most legendary albums of all time as shining memory of being thirteen.

BCF PROMPT: "Which three of these skills are the most important for success in life? Why? Patience, common sense, humor, courage, creativity, resourcefulness, work ethic, organization, integrity, responsibility, compassion, self-control, pride, flexibility, obedience, love, kindness, independence, discernment, wisdom, initiative, friendliness or wit."

What's your favorite color? Choose three out of the big box of wax with the sharpener in the back.

Having any combination of the mentioned traits would likely be a successful grouping, but all come with costs and some are by-products of the others. I'm not here right now to debate them. Everyone learns on their own from each of the skills listed, but experience is the umbrella under which we figure out how to deal with all of the above.

I don't think there's a set roadmap that says if you do "this, this, and that", you'll be successful. A lot of it has to do with luck as well. Being in the right place at the right time is just as important as busting your ass to get to where you are, and even then, sometimes that's not enough when life gets boiled down to popularity contests instead of the merits we should actually be using to judge an individual's worth in society. Too much rides on success, rather than the climb (unless the fail is epic).

Do we play a part in creating our opportunities? Of course. The right to say yes or no is a great example of that.

I guess if I were to play along and choose three like the prompt says, it'd be work ethic, resourcefulness, and love. Any one of the traits mentioned that breeds others in a positive way can't be wrong. It's all in how they're used which determines their benefits.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

I've said it a million times before, and I'll take it to my grave that this is from top to bottom the best album created by people who create albums, and the world will never see another one like it.

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

Not tryin' to front, but really...pickin' three outta twenty-three of anything is kind of an exercise in ridiculousness. And that's coming from someone who's staked out a life in ridiculousness.

There are rare occasions when I can't wait to hit "send" on an entry, but this is one of them. While I've probably written in the past how amazing "Paul's Boutique" is, I don't think I've ever afforded myself the opportunity to pair it with a critical age or a set of circumstances in life. Only through the combination of the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  and "Blogging Circle of Friends Prompt Forum" , y'all. That's where magic is made relived for all to see. Peace, I'd really like to do your hair some time, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!