The Problem
First things first, we have to acknowledge the unnatural insanity of our modern world. Our species evolved as tribes of hunter gatherers, living communally, and working only enough to secure our next meal, on average around twenty hours a week. The rest of our time was spent within the community building relationships, playing, talking, and watching the stars. As we have progressed, we have piled on more and more work and removed a lot of our involvement in our communities. We may have split the atom and increased communication via the internet, but our needs as individuals haven’t really changed. We need physical activity, meaningful work, and a community to fit into. We can see the sickness of our current state when we see the various forms of tribalism manifesting themselves in our lives today. We are in essence a wild animal, caged in a society that barley fulfills our needs, and projects its heightened value of personal possession onto us. The memes that have replicated themselves throughout our societies are those that prize things over meaning. We live in a world where we value our possessions more than finding real contentment in our lives.
What do we do?
At least once a week I find myself in traffic, and I am punched straight in the face by the absurdity of my daily routine. Why do I really need to go through these motions every week, are they really helping me achieve a life of true meaning? Am I being an authentic human being? In those moments I have the strong urge to check out, and run away to live a simple life as Henry David Thoreau did at Walden Pond. But let’s be realistic. We cannot simply opt out of our caged existence, we have people who count on us, things we want to accomplish, new seasons of Game of Thrones to look forward to. We have to make our cage more enjoyable. We’ve all seen videos of wild animals in third rate zoos, sitting in their concrete cells, looking miserable. That is essentially where we are living today, disconnected, locked into mundane jobs, eating poor quality food, making money for our corporate masters. We need to spruce up our zoo, and enrich our environment.
Weightlifting
Animals are happiest when they have playthings in their environment, others to interact with, and a life that somewhat resembles their natural habitat. As human beings we can do this in a variety of ways, however I’m going to talk specifically about how we can use our time within the walls of the gym to enrich our lives. This is our hamster wheel, an approximation of the physicality, play and community that we’ve lost to modernity. When you are a part of a team you get more than the mere physical activity you could at a twenty four hour fitness center, you get a tribe. A group with common goals, struggling and celebrating together, becomes a family. The interactions you have with your team in real time gives us personal interactions that the social media age has taken from us. Our training sessions are group play, serious play, but play nonetheless.
Physical achievements help to build our confidence, and give us something to look forward to that gets us through the nine to five grind most of us have to deal with. They give us the strength to overcome the absurdity, a mental toughness that has to be earned in a world where we expect so much to be given to us. We can restructure our lives to maximize these real experiences that require you to be both physically and mentally present. The material world won’t understand this adjustment, for it does nothing to get you a better wardrobe, or nicer objects. But the depth of meaning is there, we are enriching our cage, making our lives more fulfilling which in the end is what matters. The relationships and strength you form within the walls of the gym will be carried with you wherever life takes you. Spit into the face of society and do your own thing; only we can decide what is truly important.