Contrary to how I remember it, 7th grade doesn't seem all that stressful to Sunny. He's got a wonderful Southern Californian fluidity -- he just roles from one thing to the next, always with minimal friction. Never flustered, Sunny is blessed with great balance, both physical and emotional.
Despite his vibrant energy for kinetic activity, Sunny also has an old-soul calmness, like a monk's zazen. On my 13th birthday, I took a sleeping bag and hiked into the hills, started a small fire, sat contemplative under the stars by myself for the night. Sunny would never do something so artificial as a self-fabricated rites-of-passage exercise. He doesn't exaggerate, over-compensate or engage with the unnecessary. He aways seems to be present and content where he is, yet he's almost always on move to his next destination. He's parsimonious with his words, but not shy. And despite being too damn cute for words, there's not an ounce of arrogance in his angelic smile. I've never heard him make a joke at someone else's expense, yet he seems completely unbothered when others (mostly me) make fun of him. He just smiles.
13 years ago, our mom Carmen Abelleira (pictured left) woke me up to say her water had broke. Our dad David Robert White drove us 13.3 miles from our house in Troy to the hospital in Moscow, Idaho.At the time it seemed like the most natural decision in the world, but people are surprised when I tell them I was in the room when Sunny was born. I was 11 years old and in charge of noting the exact time of birth (two seconds before 10:31pm).
Watching my little brother's birth was a beautiful, terrifying, life-changing experience -- the rupture point in my development from a childhood to adulthood.
I was the first person to hold lil sunny after the doctor and my parents. We've been best friends for 13 years, but I've been mostly gone for the last 6, first in Boston and now in Spain. I'd go home in a second if I thought he needed me there, but everyone who knows him repeats the same verdict: he's just a wonderfully happy little kid.
And little he his. Like his brother before him, Sunny is by far the shortest kid in his class. But unlike his sulky big bro, it doesn't seem to bother him. Like everything else, he takes his puniness in stride.
Other than the fact that all the girlies in his class are about a foot taller than him, Sunny has very little to complain about. Not only does he live in the epically beautiful East End of the Ojai Valley, but he's got more stamps on his passport than 007.
When he was 9 years old, Sunny came to visit me at Boston College and lived in the dorm with us for a week. He's twice been to Cuba to visit our family in Calabazar de Sagua and thrice (or more) to Scotland to visit our family in Aberdeen. Last summer, he went to Indonesia for a month with our dad, who was researching sustainable environmental design in Bali as part of his work with the Ojai Center for Regenerative Agriculture.
Sunny unexpectedly found an amazing half-indoor skatepark in Kuta-Bali, where he filmed+edited a skate video with his digital cameral and bootleg editing software [insert pithy Web 2.0 comment about how the times they are a'changing]:
Later that same summer, Sunny worked at as counselor at the Ojai Valley School English-language camp, went to Baha California for the umpteenth time and (oh yeah, I almost forgot) went on tour and visited every West Coast skatepark from Ojai to Portland, Oregon -- ending at Burnside.
Over Christmas vacation this year, Sunny flew out to visit me in Spain. First we explored Barcelona, the contemporary Mecca of skateboarding. Though he'd never been there, Sunny knew where all the skate spots are -- and how to find them -- based on his vicarious life-experience from playing the Tony Hawk video game. He made another compilation video from this trip, with no help from big brother (other than musical consultation):
As if I wasn't already drowning in sibling jealousy, Sunny's also got a natural sense of rhythm (which I do not), though I don't think I've ever caught him dancing in public (which I do daily). It didn't take long for him to get loose on the Akai MPC drum machine in my bedroom:
He's never taken lessons, but he's always shown an innate facility with drums. While in Granada, he had the opportunity to practice with Richard Dudanksi, the drummer from Joe Strummer's (pre-The Clash) band The 101ers.
Today, Gnotes turned to me and asked half-worriedly, "Sunny likes the music we make, right?"
Of course he does (I hope), because that kid's got good taste.
1 comments:
A lovely tribute to an awesome lil brother! I can relate ;)
Post a Comment