Slomo: The Man Who Skates to Freedom

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Skate freely, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

-- Galatians 5: 19 (slightly modified)

He Glides down the boardwalk on rollerblades...

"He glides down the PB Boardwalk capturing the imagination of children, the hearts of adults and odd glares from those who don’t know of him. He’s a loner in our midst, carrying out his mission right before our eyes seemingly without a worry in the world, and a smile the size of a piano keyboard. The man in his early-70s is as jubilant as a kid in a candystore flying down The Boardwalk on rollerblades with arms outstretched like wings, and one foot in the air like a tail. He claims he was made like Batman, “desolate in the streets,” and we know him by his famous name: Slomo." (La Jolla Light, Nov. 20, 2017) Click here for more.

"I'm just trying to get to the end of my life without becoming an asshole again."

Slomo uses the word "spiritual" to name a sense of freedom - an unfettered zest for life -- that is a calling within each of us. Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat in Spirituality and Practice call it Zeal. Slomo also offers a prophetic critique of mainstream "asshole" society. Asshole society is the world of appearance, affluence, and marketable achievement. The world of conventionally defined success in consumer society. There are other ways to break free of such society. One, for example is to become a carrier of God's love to the poor and powerless, the forgotten and forsaken. Truth be told, Slomot could have turned his medical profession in this direction. Still, the world is wide and there's room for many kinds of "freedom." I think of Slomo as partaking of the world of the hermit: San Diego style. And I believe that the world is well-served by just this kind of hermit. We may not skate, but we do indeed need to claim our inner Slomo: that side of our lives which, free from a compulsion to be "normal," hears a call to a wider joy. In the house joy there are, and need to be, many rooms. Blessed are the skaters, for theirs is the kingdom of gliding. (JMcD)