I'm hoping that one day I end up looking like a junkyard cat. I don't know why, but I think it's pretty cool when someone is pretty banged up.

I'm not a very careful guy, so my hands are all torn up, burns on my arms / legs, old gashes... Each one's got a story but at some point they start to get hard to remember. I've still got two eyeballs, both ears, and all my digits though.

Maybe it's that Hunter S. Thompson quote; “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'Wow! What a Ride!'"

Take up mountain biking then, I’m covered in gravel rash scars, tear scars, random cuts from trees scars, dents in my shins from stones, slices from maintenance, all sorts. It really is a sport that bites back.

As I’ve aged the scarring stays longer and is darker so I’m starting to look like a population distribution map of some kind.

Wouldn’t change it for the world, great sport, great adventures.

I don't necessarily want to look beat up, but I'm also fine with it. It's one of (not the only) the signs of a life lived. I've trained BJJ for years, and don't want cauliflower ear like some do. I've drained them a few times, but my ears have definitely changed a bit, and that's fine. I also teach BJJ and let the new people practice moves on me and they sometimes can bump me and give me a black eye. It's always fun to sign onto meetings when that happens, especially since I'm way past the age of fighting. New people are always slightly awkward around asking what happened.

When I go back to work after a weekend of working on the cars, my hands are cut up, black gunk in the creases from the grease that NO soap could wash off, burns from hot manifolds and getting too close to spinning pulleys and belts. Someone always says to me "you need to wear gloves." My response is usually to hold up my hands, and say "this is my FAVORITE part."

https://youtube.com/shorts/e2A8czGPQxc?si=ZM87lybg9PAYikqb

I have so many scars from a childhood of running hard and falling, skateboarding, longboarding falls, burns from playing a lot with fires, running accidents and falls. It’s a good life.