sin – I am Rirou the Punk!

This chapter is more like an open letter to my kids an idea that I got from my athlete, the guy who did the solo ironman. Which by the way, he did another one, can you believe it? That is pretty wild right? 3 ironmans in one year with 2 being solo. As his coach I told him, that is wild so let’s do it, because life is about following your dreams!

Back in at the of 2003 when I had my first real crisis I stopped to ask myself: what life was all about? That is when I heard the iron maiden song Wildest Dream. That was like a whisper in my ears like this “Joy is your birth right”. But what was my joy? I was so numb that I didn’t even know what my joy was, but I knew one thing, as a kid I wanted to be a professional athlete. Everyone told me it was impossible because I had no talent as a kid. And now, I was 260 pounds, drinking daily, and smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day. Would that be even possible to pursue such an wild dream? Well, I thought so.

That is when I felt in love with ironman and decided to pursue a kids dream. For me was more about the journey of becoming a pro athelte than actually winning. Yes I wanted to win, but that was not the main goal. The main goal was to find my joy in life, specially because I was not willing to do everything to win, such as drugs or drafting in a race. My thought was if I ever win anything needed to be clean. During my ironman years I started to question a lot of things, after all do you want a better therapy of hours and hours of exercise just you and yourself? Add metal and punk rock to the mix and we have the closest thing to a perfect therapy.

After awhile doing ironman and also doing therapy I started to find my real joy. I realized I had more kids dreams to fulfill and those dreams were much much deeper in my soul, because that I had to face a much bigger demon. As I learned in my ironmans, and told all my athletes, you need to face your demons. I also learned in my own experience that when you are in hell become friends with the devil, and that is what I did.

After 18 ironmans I realized it was time to move forward. When I asked my therapist what innerchild had to do with depression and she answered “everything “. I didn’t think twice, I knew it was time to complete heal my innerchild. It was time to pursue my other kids dreams which consist in:

Learn how to play all iron maiden songs in the guitar.
Learn how to sing.
Have my own talk show.
Write a book of my story.
Have a blog related to music.

For me was never about fame or money, was always about happiness. Happiness is about pursing a dream and following your heart. That day in 2003 I just choose to make a change towards my happiness. Success for me is about exceeding your own limitations, is going above of what you thought it was possible. You can shoot for the moon because if you miss you will land in the stars.

For me being a punk is about following your dreams, and choosing happiness over the same old story. After all joy is our birth right. In numerology 666 simply means:

666 the number of the beast for me is the greatest song ever created in human history, that’s why I starting with this one.

All that being said, what I want to teach my kids and hopefully other kids through music is to follow their dreams; and to choose love over fear.

Punkaste,

Rirou!

I’m gonna organize some changes in my life,
I’m gonna exorcise the demons of my past,
I’m gonna take the car and hit the open road,
I’m feeling ready to just open up and go And I just feel like I can be anything,
that I might ever wish to be,
and fantasize just what I want to to be,
make my wildest dreams come true I’m on my way.
Out on my own again I’m on my way out on the road again, When I remember back to how that things used to be,
and I was stuck inside a shroud of misery I felt I disappeared so deep inside my self
I couldn’t find a way to break away the hell When I’m feeling down and low,
I vow I’ll never be the same again,
I just remember what I am, and visualize what I’m gonna be, I’m on my way. Out on my own again,
I’m on my way, I’m gonna break away, I’m gonna break away, I’m out on my own,
I’m out on my own, gonna break away, breaking away, I’m on my way, out my own again,
I’m on my way, out on the road again, I’m on my way, out on my own again,
I’m on my way, I’m gonna break away,

One thing Rirou learned in life through out his case of the Mondays was, to look at the bright side of life. After the priest accused Rirou for smoking too much weed, and said that his soul was going to burn in a lake of fire for the rest of eternity; Rirou did the only thing he knew to do, he decided to challenged the status quo.

Rirou went skateboarding and decided to try marijuana, and he end up having the biggest spiritual experience of his life. Plus that day he skate like he had never skate before. Seems like he was possessed to skate, but the most important part of that experience was that Rirou though what if the devil is like the Tasmanian devil cartoon? completely crazy, energetic, intense, with a sense of humor and a big heart? what if hell is a place with lost of rock and roll, beer, weed and skateboarding?

On that same night Rirou went to a punk rock concert at the beach, and he got to the mosh pit, and he never felt so alive in his life. That experience blew Rirou’s mind. After the show Rirou lay down at the beach and looked to the moon and thought “Well I guess I am going to hell in all Religions, so maybe the devil and I can become friends”.

Rirou kept that for himself, and he did what he was thought to and buried his feelings, the good, the bad and the ugly feelings. With time and therapy Rirou started to realize that maybe people were just afraid to feel good. He knew he was afraid to feel good, after all, that was a sin (based of the collective matrix), but Rirou realized that there is another side of the story, so he thought if Religion claims to have the truth, and there is another side of the story; therefore Religion can easily be lying.

So, what if there is no sin? If life is how you feel, and in order to feel joy you also need feel the rest (the good, the bad and the ugly), is just part of life. During the ironman cozumel in 2011 Rirou was the marathon part, and he was in hell. Literally, it had rain and it was 95 featherweights, and smoke was coming out of the asphalt. Rirou was in bad shape and his mind was going crazy; with the angel telling him to stop, but Taz (the devil) showed up that day and whispered “you should face the pain and keep going”. Rirou started to run again and he had another insight and thought “If I keep running at 8 min pace I will finish faster and pain will end quick. If I keep walking at 16 min pace the pain is the same but it will take me double the time to finish, and if I quit the pain (a different kind of pain) will least even longer.” So he ran and finish the race as his second best Ironman time ever.

Rirou realized that day that the devil was his friend after all. That day Rirou realized it does not matter in how much shit you are in, there is always a bright side. It all depends on how you look at it, and Rirou was right when in hell become friends with the devil and from that day on, Rirou started to look at the bright side of life.

Does not matter how much shit you are in, there is always a bright side to it, even if it is a lesson. And that is the Rock-it-ology second punk rule!

Feel Good,

Rirou

Tag: sin

Chapter 15: Wildest Dream

Day 28 of 40 – Always look at the bright side of life