Master rhetoric scholar and long-time blader Frank Stoner has been tackling some big blade concepts in his very cerebral blog, Second Place. Fans of intelligent blade discourse have no doubt already become familiar with the material. Recently, Frank decided to undertake something possibly never done in blading before: make sense of our crazy power structure. But not just like a bullshit organizational chart of who’s who and what they do. No, this series isn’t about who has power, it’s about what “power” even means. It’s about the ways we all have power… and don’t. And what that means for our participation in the community, at least in terms of how we experience it. Since we just posted the third and final portion of this exploration of power in our sport — our first Trilogy series of stories — and since some of what Frank discusses reminded us of the themes South Park danced all over in their amazing “Imaginationland” Trilogy, we decided to leave you with this quote from Kyle Broflovski:

“It’s all real. Think about it. Haven’t Luke Skywalker and Santa Claus affected your lives more than most real people in this room? I mean, whether Jesus is real or not, he — he’s had a bigger impact on the world than any of us have. And the same can be said for Bugs Bunny and — and Superman and Harry Potter. They’ve changed my life — changed the way I act on the earth. Doesn’t that make them kind of real? They might be imaginary but, but they’re more important than most of us here. And they’re all gonna be around here long after we’re dead. So, in a way, those things are more realer than any of us.”

That’s power. Now read about how it works in blading…

The Nature of Power in Rollerblading, Part 1

The Nature of Power in Rollerblading, Part 2

The Nature of Power in Rollerblading, Part 3