Sunday Story…Stories

The stories we tell ourselves about the things that happen in our lives are of greater import than the things themselves. Victor Frankl in “Man’s Search for Meaning” says very clearly that man is a meaning making machine. The only freedom we have is the freedom to choose our attitude about what is happening to us. No one can take this freedom away from us. It is what sustains people through horrible inhumane situations…their attitude about what is going on around them.

I was 17 years old and the second seed at the district wrestling tournament. I had completed a very successful football season (honorable mention prep all-American defensive back) and had a couple colleges sniffing around. I was looking forward to a berth to the Washington State wrestling championships where I was considered one of the top candidates for a title. 2 weeks before the tournament my appendix almost ruptured and I was hospitalized to have surgery to have it removed. It was a butcher job and I still have a visible 4” long scar. I thought I could still compete but they wouldn’t let me and rightfully so as the stitches came apart and you could see inside my abdomen. Needless to say I was devastated. I didn’t go out for track that spring. And I left high school before my senior year and went to Gonzaga University. That event informed so many things over my next 40 years it is frightening. As a matter of fact going into the CrossFit games I was sure my body would betray me again. I was super paranoid about getting hurt or something worse. It sucked. Now that I went and did well I feel like I have finally buried the demons that I created.

The decisions we make now can often have far reaching ramifications that inform our lives for years, and in my case, decades. We all have had things happen to us, it is part of life. What we tell ourselves about those things forms our life.

Maybe you didn’t get the bike you wanted for your birthday. And that meant what? You weren’t loved or weren’t seen? Or that someone loved you enough to get you the gift they could afford and thought you would enjoy. Maybe your parents beat you. And that meant you weren’t good enough or you have no purpose in life other than to be a punching bag. Or that you were strong enough to take those blows and survive and nothing else in life will ever be that bad?

You get to decide what those things mean to you. The younger you were when you gave those things meaning the more likely they are to need revising. You get a chance to change history. What happened is what happened. The meaning you assign to it is up to you. And the meaning you give it should show you how great, powerful and worthy you really are.

Namaste

John Mariotti

www.crossfit-odyssey.com

www.martialartsnevada.com

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

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