Beyond Love is Obsession
My last post discussed my personal values and how I thought that might impact the relationships I’ve created in drifting. I put up the challenge for any reader to write a similar article, on how the drifting community relates to them. Alex Clack (Alex Clack) contributed his thoughts in a piece that I can directly relate too. Something that stood out to me from his perspective was the expression of being driven by the thing itself. We all bring our own history, interpretations, and world views to this sport, but one thing we have in common is that we are able to express these through the art of drifting. To some this is a sentimental memory, to others it is the art of the craft. Whatever it is, it ends in passion to create art and make it fly.
I missed out on all of it. Everything that will one day be described as the bronze, silver, and golden ages of drifting may have come and gone before I even knew what drifting truly was. In 2017 my girlfriend and I were almost killed on I-80 because of a “hit and run” driver; I completely lost out in the
accident and scrambled to hold our lives, let alone myself, together. That lasted for six months and three panic attacks, until I hit rock bottom. But during that time, I found drifting, and its precision and ferocity reignited my passion for cars. My goals were realigned as I learn to be a part of, and a contributing member, of this community I fell in love with.
That’s why I was the loudest guy in the crowd at both Final Bout events at USAir in 2020, because I’ve only felt that feeling, that alive, a handful of times in my life — and I can no longer live without it. Every single driver gave me that elation, that electricity, and I wholeheartedly embrace those feelings of camaraderie as we share the positive feedback loop of the sweetest, purest, natural high that every human being aches for. That’s what the drifting community means to me, and that’s only from my perspective as a passionate fan and hopeful newcomer to this family.
For me, the community as a whole in the drift scene is the most important factor, as it both foundationally stabilizes and self-propels progress; witnessing the way this community takes care of one another, thus aiding the whole, is the living, breathing example of solidarity. I’m wholly invested in this community because I too, like you, fell in love with the giants that we all stand on the shoulders of. With them, we’ve laughed and cried together. That’s what brings me to the one and only point I truly believe:
It is the community itself, it is the people both individually and as a whole that makes this community unique.
It’s with those heroes present, and passed, who inspire people like me to be a part of this — we need and hunger for it. It’s the reason I can move forward despite my daily struggles with depression and anxiety; it’s the glimpses of a future, a life people just like me can have — I know for a fact it’s the reason you’re reading this now because it’s the same reason we’re all here. We witnessed artists using their medium to improvisationally do something with a vehicle that we didn’t think possible up to that point in our lives, and we fell in love with their art, them, and with the pursuit to learn how we can achieve that too.
My personal values and the values I seek in others in all things:
- Creativity — It helps give life meaning, and understanding and embracing our passions is the key to it.
- Knowledge — It is only through learning and acquiring experience that we can grow, and it’s something we should always strive to do.
- Communication — Without truthful, meaningful communication, no relationship can succeed.
- Passion — So many people misunderstand what it means to be truly passionate about something. Passion is the propellant in everyone’s life, what gets you out of bed each morning, and drives you to chase and attain your ambitions with your own hands.
- Novelty — Humanity is so gloriously diverse, through understanding one’s self we learn what makes us unique individuals and how our differences contribute to the whole of the community.
- Diligence — Without continuous and honest constructive criticism, our progress is hampered. Blunt, but without harshness, our most reliable critics should be our closest allies.
- Collaboration — All of the above is worthless unless we communicate and share like ideas; it’s always the most expedient way to get the best outcome for everyone.
How I view the greater drifting community, from my vantage point, and how it aligns with my personal
outlook:
- Investment — It feels like one large family — everyone’s invested so deeply that we only demand the best of each other, again, to help foster everyone’s growth.
- Accessibility — Where else can we so easily and openly converse with the “giants” in our lives, and they remain as passionate as you or I?
- Inclusiveness — Rather than exclusion, there’s a unity with everyone being more than willing to share and be shared with.
- Camaraderie — Those with are always willing to help those without. I’ve seen people drive cross country just to lend a hand to another in need.
- Experiential — Witnessing drifting is an experiential art form that delivers an individual, mutual, and reciprocal feeling throughout its audience. Drift cars have passenger seats to share that experience, first hand, with others.
- Collaboration — Everyone’s individual expertise, when working collaboratively, aid one another part by part, blood, sweat, and tears to make real our own one-off pieces of art; “the more the merrier”.
Hopefully, lending my voice can help us find what it is that brings and keeps us together. With this, I wish to do right for this community and give back to what has already given me so much. I also send my most sincere thanks, peace, and love to all.
-Alex Clack
Thank you so much for opening up and contributing Alex. I hope you find what you are looking!
