On being part of a community

One of my middle-aged patients has suddenly taken up skateboarding. Not many people suddenly decide to do that at age 45, so I asked him why he'd decided on that hobby.

"I wanted to do more stuff with the neighbor kids. I mean, I known 'em since they were babies and I was runnin' the meth house, but I'm sober now and I thought it could be fun. They always looked up to me and I thought it'd be nice to be be a good influence for once."