3/9/23
You get a lot of value out of what you do consistently for long lengths of time.
This is something, a shame to be missing from modern culture.
Who has traditions?
The tradition, done because tradition – no explanation necessary, imparts necessary discipline.
A coworker once told me of three generations of his family sitting around smoking marijuana together.
He was glad to do so with grandpa and grandma before they were gone.
A more extreme example yes, of what this culture imparts from one generation to the next – passing down television, texting, to the next.
As I drove the other day, noticing the cellphone addicts in other vehicles in the intersection around me, it struck me that many children as of yet unborn may never know a world where the driver of the vehicle they are in does not text and drive.
I pictured my future daughter looking at me and saying “daddy, sally’s parent doesn’t drive like you – how come you don’t text”.
Note that word choice, “parent” singular, nonspecific as to what parent.
Is that the world we will always live in?
…..
What are the rites of manhood?
Drinking beer? Your first job? Losing your virginity?
It is all rather banal, and mostly left to the devices of each boy individually.
At 14 I found pushups.
Here, now, at 28 I just did a few sets. It is about 11pm.
Yet another night they have been checked off.
…..
Yesterday, as of many days – with an ebb and flow, the urge to do them was weak. Not present.
I did them anyway.
Pushups are something I simply do.
Today, the three sets, no other pointed exercise today, today very light in activity, watching Ben Hur, The 10 Commandments, eating well – I can’t tell you how high the value I felt from doing the thing.
What difference would a day off make?
What do a handful of sets matter?
It can be all the world.
The difference between slovenly and pumped up.
Moreso where your mind is at.
Maybe you’re in a dark period, maybe you almost never want to do the reps…
Maybe you do the first set, which makes you better in outlook for the second, which increases again for the third, and upon standing your mind is telling you of naught but your individual greatness “fuck yeah I’m strong”, you look and your hands knowing your capability.
Smile son. Do the work. It will go your way…when it must. When the time is right.
What you must do is do what you must.
Forever. Always.
To drink deeply of living.
To be busy living.
To pride yourself in the manner in which you live, in how you carry yourself always.
Pushups have become religious to me.
A daily rite that I never skip.
100% accomplishment.
May 13, 2016 –
Arguably since about the 4th of July 2012.
What victories do you give yourself daily, 365, every year, year after year?
Best to create yourself victories.
None of the giving up epidemic to the culture at large.
The world, your world, is mostly in your mind, your actions, and your interpretations.
Pushups set me right.