SxE Baseball Player

It's great when a positive role model of Straight Edge can be seen outside the Hardcore scene. Not to say anything bad about hardcore. But when the media general always has something bad to say about SxE such as that Utah SxE kid getting 20 years for a 1998 stabbing (but read the comments, I really need to learn more about this particular incident) it really makes you proud to hear about someone that is truly posi.

So hear I want to talk about C.J. Wilson, a pitcher for the Texas Rangers and someone that is truly proud to be Straight Edge. He has a few SxE tattoos and something that I think is definitely awesome is that he has XXX stitched into his glove. C.J. is also a Taoist, and a college film major that will actually be doing new commercials for the team himself.

Alone On My Birthday

No decoration on, no cake
Nobody remembered this important date
Guitar, pen, brain start to contemplate
They're the only 3 here
For this joyous celebration
Because I'm self-absorbed, I get upset
Mad at the world, how could they forget ?
I was alone at birth, I'll be alone at death
Hope I won't be alone at my final destination
Never really thought it would've happened to me
But that night I sat by the telephone
Never really thought it would've happened to me
I spent my birthday all alone
Birth's a costume with a genetic script
We play some role that we'd like to fit
And never admit that we're full of it
And live life in some sort of dazed hallucination
I'll never lament because life is brief
Our bodies are changing like the autumn leaf
It's said that time is the greatest thief
And beats and cheats this entire population
But it's alright, home tonight, just suits me fine
I don't mind spending time with my mind all alone

"Alone On My Birthday" ~ Shelter

So I had started to become pretty bummed about turning 30 (funny how I got my triple X's on my 30th year.) I was beginning to think that I was going to be spending this day alone because some of my friends had started acting like non-friends. But life has a way of giving you something to make you smile when you least expect it to treat you right, so I won't be alone on my birthday after all =)

No sex, right?

Typically after I mention that I'm Straight Edge, after some discussion about drinking or tattoos or Vin Disel (the whole Triple X thing or Dungeons and Dragons), I'm asked what it means. I usually explain that it's a way-of-life like veganism: "I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs." These three rules I believe in most of all the rules that people associate with being Straight Edge. It's funny that when I mention what it means to be Straight Edge one question comes up a lot. "No sex, right?" So apparently they heard about SxE before but only recall it after explained and then counter with the "Don't Fuck" rule. Now I usually don't mention this rule myself as I believe that sex is a personal decision. I feel that it can effect one's life in an adverse way. So I tend to reply to their question with "No promiscuous sex," I just don't act like a whore.

It's also kind of interesting that when I mention the primary rules that people will also sometimes interject with their level of closeness to being SxE such as "I don't smoke" or "I rarely drink." I actually don't care, it's your life. Do as you please, I'm not a SxE preacher. That's why i have my Xs tattooed on my back, it's personal.

Be true to yourself, whether you're True Till Death or not, your own life matters most.