Soar With Eagles or Roost With Turkeys

Monday, November 16, 2009
167.5#

A recurrent theme of conversation in our household of late has been the importance of keeping good company. I suspect most of us have heard of the concept of "playing" someone better to become better. That is to say, competing against a more skilled opponent. Business moguls apply this to business theory. Academics apply it to advanced thought. We, at home, have been applying it to friendships. True to form, I have been thinking about it in terms of how it applies to every aspect of my life.
To some degree, we are a collection of the people with whom we have come into contact throughout our lives.We learn from them, draw from them, absorb them, in ways that are often completely unconscious. Obviously, the more we are around someone, the more we absorb from them. One would think we incorporate little from strangers we only briefly encounter, but sometimes this assumption does not hold true. After living in the socially toxic culture that is Memphis, I was much less tolerant of the "little things." I was impatient and critical because that was the attitude I had learned to "throw back" at the total strangers who could interact on no other level. I have learned to grow past that point in my life, but I see now that I am a collection of the people I love. I know who gave me my love of the outdoors, who showed me that exercise could be playtime for adults, who taught me generosity and compassion, who emphasized attention to detail, and I carry a piece of them and all the others who have influenced me with me everywhere I go.
Realizing this fact, though, I had to examine the full nature of what I might be absorbing from the ones I choose to make a part of my life. With this has come some harsh reality. I have been examining my life on a much deeper level, looking through this particular "lens," and what I see has surprised me a bit. I am trying to adjust accordingly, and at times this can be exhausting.

WORKOUT:
As many as possible sets of 12kg snatches 12 right/12 left in 15 minutes...Today this was 9
rest 3 min
As many as possible sets of purple and black band assisted pullups alternated with 4 perfect pushups in 15 minutes. The pullups were supposed to be 5, but I couldn't get 5 good ones, so I went down to 4 then realized I needed to go down to 3. got 7 sets total.