Sunday Story…Why

Do I workout, or more accurately why do I workout like a mad man?

To stave off the ravages of time?
To prove how fit I am (to who?)?
To look better naked?
To eat or drink whatever I want?
To be healthy(er)?
To compete at the highest level of fitness?
To live an extraordinary life?

All of those things, to some degree, are true. I do want to age well and be able to do what I want when I want no matter how old I am. I am proving how fit I am to myself every day. Looking better naked? We will let that one go! I do eat and drink whatever I want, although what I want isn’t trash or poisonous to my health. Yes, I want to improve my health every day. And the goal is to show up next year at the CrossFit games ready to take on the world.

But as fine as all those reasons are, they aren’t the primary impetus for going as hard as I do. They aren’t enough to put my body, and dangerously, my health on the line. I am writing this with one hand after being surgically repaired 2 weeks ago (tendon). Those reasons are not enough to have me start lifting weight and pushing my body less than 2 weeks out of the operating theatre.

So…Why? What is driving this bus? What is it that has me relentlessly pursuing this thing?
In a nutshell: the pursuit of excellence. The desire to be the best. At the end of the day the ability to look back and say, today I touched excellence and tomorrow I am going to do it again.
In the words of Aristotle:
We are what we do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

At the end of the work can you say you gave full effort? If so it is a victory…a victory over mediocrity, the defeat of average, of the mundane, of everyday ho hum, hum drum.

Pursue excellence. Live extraordinary.
Join me.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Bittersweet

Yesterday I gave my daughter’s hand in marriage. As a decidedly non-traditional individual I had no idea of the emotional repercussions that would resonate through my being. Those of you who have been through this know what I am talking about.

As parents, our job is to get our children to adulthood, to provide them a platform to succeed in life, to be fulfilled and happy, and to have the kind of life they want. When we can do that, we can feel like we have been relatively successful in the venture.

The dichotomy of being successful is that we also know that our child no longer needs us the way they did before. Thus, the bittersweet nature of being a parent. There is no more poignant moment than a wedding. It is in that moment that it is obvious our child is no longer a child but a full grown adult about to embark on their own journey.

There was a moment yesterday when I was so proud of my daughter, of the woman she has become, the things she has accomplished, the love she has found, and the life she has built. My heart was full and overjoyed. It is difficult to express the overwhelming emotional whirl in that moment.

At the same time I remembered all those moments growing up…the moment of her birth, her first steps, the baby teeth, the skinned knees, the push and pull of growing up and growing away, the young adulthood of freedom, and now the joining of the community of family. It is in that remembering that a life of memories, joys and sorrows, and the hope and wishes for the future lie.

Yesterday was one of the happiest days of my life and one of the most poignant. I would not trade it for anything in the world.
To my daughter and her new husband I wish you all the love and all the joy and success in the world.
To my daughter I say this: Thank you. Thank you for all your love, thank you for taking the lessons that worked for you and rejecting the ones that didn’t. Thank you for being strong, thank you for being open to love. Most of all, Thank you for being my daughter. I love you now and forever.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…the sound

Of one hand clapping. This is a well known Zen koan designed to aid in the process of insight or enlightenment. The fact that there is there is no correct answer to any koan is where the insight lies. What you are, what you know, or what you believe is what you get based on your experience, your ability to focus and concentrate, or your level of training.

So what is the sound of one hand clapping to you? And why am I asking this today? To the first you will need to search for the answer yourself. To the second it is because I am typing this today with one hand after surgery on my left (dominant) hand. To myself I am asking what is the use of one hand if not for clapping.

I certainly can’t use it for much else. Yet there it is where it has always been at the end of my arm. It will eventually function as it always has…opposable thumb and all. It is in this slight misfortune that a fortune of learning may lie. Therein lays the subject of this meditation: how to find the fortune in any misfortune.

When faced with adversity what is your default position? Where do you go first? Do you crawl under the covers and bury your head in the sand hoping it will go away on its own? Do you fight and rail and try to beat it with a show of will and power to scare the misfortune away? Or do you look deeply and search for the deeper meaning in the difficulty? Do delve into what you may have done to land in the middle of your current maelstrom? Is it always some outside agency? Or could it be some accident of circumstance? Or is it the universe laying the groundwork for some new insight or another drop in your bucket of enlightenment?

The loss of my dominant hand, however temporarily, is the universe slapping me upside the head to get me started on my writing. One of my great fears in life is that I will die with my stories untold inside of me. Yet, I have not been actively searching them out and putting them to paper. This is the universe’s way of showing me the folly of not listening. If you think this is bad imagine what will happen if you can’t get these stories out? The soul crushing weight of not fulfilling the work I was set to do is a lot to bear.

What aren’t you listening to? What messages are you just ignoring by putting their genesis on outside influences instead of getting your ear to the ground to find the true meaning? It is happening all the time if you truly listen. It is a practice, like meditation, to listen to the whispers of the universe.

Unfurl your inner ears to hear what is always being spoken.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…What to say

What is there to say in light of the past week’s incidents? I don’t have all facts that I do know. I heard a lot of theories and opinions about what happened and why. Most of that information is about a useful as teats on a boar (to dredge one of the many country aphorisms I know). It is said by someone with an ax to grind, a position to defend, or a pulpit to pound. They aren’t worth the paper they are written on.

How many of those talking heads, pundits and nattering nabobs (thanks Spiro) would be willing to set aside their opinions and positions for an honest intellectual discussion on the subject? The answer, I suspect, is not many. Too many people are overly invested in their positions, in being right.

How many of us are willing to do the research, winnow out the facts, to really look deeply into the causes of what happened? Honestly, the answer is not many of us. It will require a setting aside of years of cultural conditioning, societal pressures and our own deep prejudices. What it comes down to is this: We would rather be right than be connected. This insistence creates an immovable place. We will be unable to see any other point of view or embrace any other position. This separates us from our fellow humans and allows me to be insulated from their lives and suffering. And yes, this life, for all of us, has suffering. It is part of the human condition.

We will need to decide to be connected. We will need to be willing to set aside our need to be right and allow ourselves to see the other as ourselves. Would you, right now, be willing to trade places with a black American, a gay Arab, or a Syrian refugee? I do not know what it means to be any of those 3 people. I was not born into those lives. What I do know is their lives are immeasurably more difficult than mine. What I do know is that they are human. And as humans their suffering is my suffering. If I, through empathy, understanding, and honest communication can come into connection with those who are unlike me, then I may be able to ease both their and my suffering.

To paraphrase the Sufi poet, Rumi:
There is a field beyond right and wrong.
I will meet you there.

Let’s stop being right and get connected.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Independence Day

When I was a teenager I couldn’t wait to be free…free from my parents rules and restrictions. I would be able to do what I wanted when I wanted how I wanted. It was going to be a beautiful thing. Most of you know how that turned out!

Later in life, I thought if I just made X amount of money I would be free. Free from worry, free from the day to day restrictions that not having money put upon me. Unfortunately that didn’t happen either. That amount of money came with its own rules and restrictions.

Maybe over the years you have thought that if you just got X or did Y or married so and so all your troubles would be over and Easy street would be your address. Bad news Bunkie…none of those things are ever going to set you free.

Maybe Freedom isn’t possible. Maybe freedom is a lie we are told to keep us striving and efforting toward some unattainable goal. Independence may be a brass ring set just out of our reach to keep us from looking more deeply at our plight.

What if you are now, and have always been free? I can hear you…but the bills need to be paid, the lawn mowed, and the baby changed. How can I possibly be free?

It’s simple, really. Freedom is a choice. Freedom is an attitude. I chose the things that put me here. I chose to create those bills, paying them is a joy because I am enjoying all the things those bills bought. The lawn needs mowing because my grass is green and growing and it is in front of my home that I chose to live in. The baby I joyfully change because that small human is a part of my life I would be never be without.

Your attitude determines your level of freedom. When you pay your bills, do it with gratitude and love. When you do your household chores, smile at your good fortune to have a household to do chores for. And that diaper? It’s sign of health and love.

Find freedom today, right where you are, right now. Freedom is about your state of mind. Freedom is present right now in the choices you are making now. Freedom is yours for the taking. The prison is in your mind.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412