by teaching me this one concept, my mother had transformed the world into a puzzle waiting to be solved. Suddenly, so many things around me could be broken down and understood (or at least understood in my mind). I was five at the time, and the experience blew my mind. I can recall vividly my mom showing me my first electromagnet.Always very smart and loved deconstructing things to their very core.Not only center of gravity, but centered in life.Being 'centered' helps with every aspect of a trick.I'll read biographies that describe how different artists and composers would stay up through the night working, a feverish energy burning inside pushing them forward - and that was exactly how skating affected me from the start It's so fulfilling, and it pushed me so hard to be creative that it felt more like an art to me. This is why I have a hard time calling skating a sport - it lacks a defining structure, and it's constantly changing and evolving.His parents always gave him many chores, though - ' heavy doses of freedom anchored by responsibility' Became obsessed right away with skating, practicing every spare minute he had.This further strengthened him and weakened his father

Had a big confrontation and Rodney finally learned that the calmer he got when his dad got mad, the more flustered he got.Father volatile, dominating, forever wanted him to stop skating to focus on 'real person, adult things'.

The Mutt by Rodney Mullen