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zen and the art of yo-yo
ok not really. i’m not quite egomaniacal enough to believe that i could legitimately make that connection. actually, it’s a take on eugen herrigel’s book ‘zen and the art of archery’ (wherein the author exposes himself to traditional japanese archery in the effort to understand its more esoteric applications)… hey, if he can make it work for a book, i should be able to milk a blog post out of it.
when steve approached the team about contributing to the spyy blog, i wanted to do something different (in this case, ‘different’ takes the meaning of ‘exactly the same thing i’ve done on every other blog’). what’s always intrigued me about yo-yoing is the fact that people continue to do it. some people even obsess about it. while i won’t go so far as to espouse the socratic view that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’, i AM pretty curious as to why we, as a community, continue to yo-yo. one of the more justifiable criticisms one can make about yo-yoing (and, i guess, about most of the things i tend to pursue) is that while throwing, yo-yoers aren’t really being ‘productive’.
before you get all uptight about how i just offended yo-yoers everywhere, consider the perspective of the non-yo-yoer. here we are, a bunch of dudes (mostly) in and around the prime of our lives (again, mostly), spending hours at a time obsessing over our ability to manipulate a small ‘retro-winding, double-knobbed toy’ (to use the parlance of one brian roberts, doctor of popular). we’re not building houses. we’re not farming. we’re not selling advertising airtime. it’s going to be difficult for the hustling mainstream world to appreciate the value in learning rancid milk or arm wraps, and while we spend a lot of energy explaining to ONE ANOTHER about how great we are, few people are really out there spreading the yo-yo gospel to the uninitiated. mostly we just look at our hands, momentarily glancing up only after we find our way out of a particularly convoluted (self-designed) trap to see if anyone was looking (which more often than not… they weren’t).
the masses seem to get the up and down. they seem to get walk the dog (and request it ad nauseum). you can do those things AND simultaneously think about all the stuff you’re going to buy later at wal-mart. ‘progressive yo-yoing’ though? using the yo-yo as a creative, expressive tool? almost every yo-yoer who has, at some point abandoned the safety of their domicile has also had to ‘defend’ their art to someone, be they a parent, sibling, school bully, or weirdo at the bus stop (‘you must have a lot of free time!’).
so i guess… what’s your answer? what is your yo-yoing DOING for you? what’s it doing for ANYBODY? and if you can’t answer that question… is it worthwhile? WHAT JUSTIFIES YO-YOING?
personally, i see yo-yoing as a dynamic art; something like ultra-ephemeral graffiti. it works as a neat metaphor for life, and regularly helps me remember that i lose a bit of ’spin’ every day, and to appreciate the time i’ve got. my exploits with this ‘child’s plaything’ (hi, woody!) have also brought me into contact with some of the most fascinating, multi-faceted characters i’ve met anywhere, ever. play aside, those relationships have certainly been ‘worthwhile’. some people play yo-yo to excel at something unique. others mold it into a competition. where is the meaning for YOU? do you know?
really, the specifics of our answers don’t matter so much as that we HAVE answers (or at least consider some). maybe yo-yoing’s greatest value is in GIVING us something to question. if it amounts to us busying our fingers for an idle lack of anything ‘better’ to do, then i guess i’d kind of agree with the hypothetical ‘masses’ in failing to see the great use. if however, we apply a greater use to it; if it helps you to know who you are… then i think it is instantly made worthwhile and productive.
from time to time, i’ve been accused of trying to make yo-yoing a deeper pursuit than it is. i don’t believe that it has to be deep at all. the simple joy of playing yo-yo IS its own reward; is itself a ‘greater use’. however, i also think that it’s wise to look critically at our selves and our choices and understand what they reveal about our nature. i think from the moment we begin to explore yo-yoing and its value, it justifies itself.
apologies if this, my initial post, was annoyingly confusing or circular… but then, i suppose that’s what i was going for.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
7 Responses to “zen and the art of yo-yo”
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January 1st, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Yoyoing isn’t doing anything for me, which is exactly why it is justified as a hobby. It certainly hasn’t improved my hand-eye coordination or my alertness (seeing as I walked into a door this morning.) It doesn’t make me stronger, smarter, faster, or friendlier.
Yoyoing and I are essentially two good friends. I would survive perfectly fine without it, and it would be fine (maybe even better off) without me. But, I like it too much. I like its company, similar to how I like sitting and chatting with a friend.
I like the trials and tribulations (I spent 40 minutes de-shielding a bearing today) I like the thrill of meeting a new friend or finally landing that suicide. I like reading about how yoyoing made someone’s day special. I like watching a video, where, someone just like me, is putting out their version of what I like to do.
Would I be fine without it? Yes. Would I have a girlfriend? Probably not, now that I think about it. Would I have higher test grades? No, it doesn’t make me any worse at Developmental Psychology. Would I be more social, have more friends? No, I’m content with my lot.
Yoyoing hasn’t changed my life at all. I was running full speed for the finish line the whole time. It just gave me some encouraging words and a little boost. Yoyoing brings me joy, and it only gets better from here. It can’t weigh me down, it’ll only keep me going.
That’s what friends are for.
January 2nd, 2010 at 9:49 am
Maybe without yoyoing i always sat opposite the monitor and msn-ing or playing computer games. now i use my freetime to be creative and just play with yoyo. i met some really friendly,funny and activ
January 2nd, 2010 at 9:55 am
sry… i post it soon… :/
*active people (they yoers of course). i made interview with zammy for sleeper.hu (the biggest yoyoing website of hungary).i went ‘n’ i’ll go for contests not only for winning, just for fun! so yoing is my hobby and life not only a toy.
best regards from hungary and haőőy 2010 for everyone!
Roland Kovács
January 18th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
I think that’s a good way to look at any hobby, Ed. I think yo-yoing may capture a bit more cynicism on the part of people who don’t do it because it seems like such a “childish” endeavor, but I don’t really see much of a divide between yo-yoing or any other hobby that isn’t something that actually gives you a tangible reward.
I’ve curbed my jerk streak a bit, but the people who tend to be cynical towards yo-yoing are often people with very one-dimensional sort of lives that focus on the more material aspects of existence. In other words: they don’t really have any hobbies that they have any particular passion for. It’s one thing to like to sit around and play poker with friends, smoke cheap cigars and drink beer because that sort of thing comes easily and it is seen as socially acceptable because you are joined with peers. An example such as poker night with the bros as a hobby differs from yo-yoing in that yo-yoing is something that, aside from the yo-yo boom every decade, individuals tend to pick up on their own without any sort of social push. To drive the point home further, while very fun, yo-yoing is actually pretty friggin’ hard when I think about it. Yes, yo-yoing is very enjoyable, but in order to really persevere to the point that you are buying multiple yo-yos, checking out yo-yo blogs and such, you have probably put a lot of time and effort(as enjoyable as it may be) into something with a largely incorporeal pay off. You aren’t doing it for money and there probably isn’t much if any sort of social interraction spurring you on either. Yo-yoing and other solo hobbies that people take up outside of fad booms, and even persisting after the boom has completely died for that matter, are ultimately things that people take up and assign a great deal of value to for entirely their own reasons.
In my experience, a lot of people just don’t have the capacity to do something with no sort of reward that goes beyond enjoyment. I don’t want to slander the whole professional endeavor for any sort of solo passtime, but look at the whole phenomenom of younger people often having professional aspirations. There is nothing wrong with seeking to be widely recognised at something…especially something as obscure as yo-yoing, but I think that sort of psychology is representative of a larger trend in society where every maze has to have some sort of morsel at the end. Once again, I am not attacking any sort of professional institutions here, I am just stating an observation of mine that goes beyond yo-yoing.
I’d personally like to think that the answer to the whole professional aspirations thing is the emphasis that society likes to place on reaping rewards for your endeavors. You can see examples of that everywhere when people look at a middle-aged guy on a longboard like he is crazy as he passes by, a dude playing a guitar in a public place that isn’t busking being gawked at or the hushed tones in response to a guy yo-yoing while he’s waiting for their missus to pick out some damned clothes at a store. Look at the trivial sorts of things that they reward on television show; society is becoming entirely too focused on the equasions of: talent+practice=excellence and excellence=reward. An individuals happiness free of social restraints is not worth nearly enough anymore.
January 18th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
grrr…I indented it and space paragraphs…grrrr…still a wall of text.
February 1st, 2010 at 2:14 pm
i do it for selfish reasons. and i love this line “personally, i see yo-yoing as a dynamic art; something like ultra-ephemeral graffiti.” because this is how i look at it.
most ppl do what they see others do. i don’t even look to see if others are watching if i’m outside throwing anymore with the exception of if they are going to ask me any questions.
sometimes i feel like answering them and other times i don’t.
February 4th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
…Ed, you forgot people looking at you yoing saying: “Guess you haven’t a girlfriend!” (indeed, the real line is a little dirtier… but I prefer not writing it here ;oDDD )