Summary

Baker begins this chapter with a reference to how, later in the chapter, he will reference a meeting with “a Yale ‘happiness professor’” who told him it is possible to “achieve wellness by being intentional about your social actions” (93). First, though, he tells the story of how he and Rory became surfers, a circumstance which he describes as “the perfect vehicle for us to give a shit about each other” (93). He describes how he and Rory each fell intensely and immediately in love with the experience of surfing, albeit on separate occasions, and how they became even closer friends as they pursued perfect waves, perfect balance, and constant calculation of circumstance. “Always,” he says, “it would feel like we’d gone through something together, which is the ancient fermentation process for brewing friendship” (95).

Baker then discusses how he and Rory went on a...