Life in Three Pictures

Have you ever looked at an old photo of yours, only to be transported instantly back in time to that moment?

That’s not how it normally goes for me—there’s no moment of total recall or anything like that, but I do enjoy playing detective on my past lives. That’s what I want to do with you today, if you’ll indulge me.

Lets start with this beauty:

Immediately, I can identify a lot of context. This is clearly at a jiu jitsu tournament, some time when I was competing regularly. I know this was about 20 years ago for several reasons.

First, that is my old friend Klint’s hand, making the ubiquitous shaka symbol. “You rock”, Klint is saying with his hand. Second, my hair is long and my face is full. I was a drinker and an athlete, which might seem like an odd combination, except it’s really not.

I’m wearing a rashguard, the type of close-fitting shirts surfers will wear. Jiu jitsu folks wear them nowadays too. The rashguard was given to me by Sam, the owner of NHB Gear. Sam and other generous…