Sunday Musings 7/24/11 (Theoretically Speaking)
Sunday musings (theoretically speaking)…
1) Theory. Among the definitions of “theory” is: “an accepted hypothesis.”
2) String theory. No, no, no…not THAT string theory. I’m a pretty bright guy, but theoretical physics? Nope. Beyond me.
No, what I’m thinking about here is the string as a connection between individuals. We are about to have a most marvelous “string”, the Crossfit Games, and the level of connectedness we will encounter will be epic.
How so, you ask? How could this possibly be, how could I call this an “epic” connection of any sort, much less of the sporting sort, when we have just seen the Women’s World Cup, the Tour de France, and are about to see the Track and Field World Championships, among other athletic events? Simple. The string that connects most everyone through the Crossfit Games is none other than Crossfit itself.
Think about it. How many of those millions of people who watched the WWC play soccer every day? Those who watched Evans out-Trial Schleck on OLN, how many of them were on their bikes even once last week? Ah, but the Games…the people watching the Games will be planning their viewing schedule around their WOD and vice versa. We LIVE what we watch.
The string is so much shorter here; the connection is tighter.
3) Education theory. Get this…I just saw a headline that said “Master’s Degrees Now Required.” Whaaat. We’ve got literally thousands upon thousands of young people with degrees that have absolutely nothing to do with their job, and now some wonky educational theorist is opining that a Master’s is required? Talk about educational inflation!
There is a practical level of knowledge that is necessary for any job, and a practical level of excellence that accrues to anyone who continues to be a learner and gains experience in that job. Why do you think sergeants are so important in the military? Yes, there is certainly a need for a small number of individuals steeped in the minutiae of any field through extended time in the oven of education, but really, that number is small in almost all fields.
As if we aren’t warehousing enough young people in “going nowhere” educational tracks, doing little more than offering an extended opportunity to grow up and grow older (Al McGuire: the best thing about freshman is that they grow up to be sophomores), now we should park them in MORE school?
4) Chaos theory. Nope. I’m not smart enough to expound on economic chaos theory (actually, I DO understand it though), I’m talking about the chaos that each of us encounters in our daily lives. It’s always so…so…outta control, ya know. Chaotic. Almost random.
There are patterns, for sure, and you can plan according to a pattern you might discern, but eventually chaos reigns. Chaos rains down upon your plan, soaking the leaves of your decision tree and leaving a sodden mess of your space underneath. Then what?
Well, sometimes it’s all too much. Sometimes the rain of chaos leads to the reign of a flood, and everything in its wake is washed away. The simple fact, though, is that these epic floods are quite rare. The confluence of streams all running against your little rowboat is really rather uncommon. The chaos itself is always there; the trick, I think, is in always seeking the flow that’s positive. Flowing your way. Being a spectator to an interesting or funny flow that’s nearby but not pushing or pulling your little boat, and maybe getting splashed a bit by the happy foam of someone else’s whitecaps.
Chaos is as random on the up side as it is on the down side. Those fantastic confluences of positive forces that conspire to push you inexorably toward some un-imaginable peak, like a 50 foot wave you are riding tighter than anything Kelly Slater ever rode? Just as rare as the 1000 year flood. Nope, the trick is to see and seek those little streams of good, each tiny trickle of happy. Not a branch on your decision tree? Scr^w it! Get out from under the tree and get wet!
You’re ready to face the chaos. You’re a Crossfitter.
I’ll see you next week…
Posted by bingo at July 24, 2011 6:30 AM
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 24th, 2011 at 8:32 am and is filed under Crossfit, Random Thoughts, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.