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Spirit of the Game

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about the most challenging aspect of ultimate frisbee.

I know what a lot of you are thinking, how is anything about chasing a plastic dog toy around a field challenging. First of all, some of the best athletes and people I know play Ultimate, and they highlights speak for the selves (AUDL link). Second, the most challenging part of the game has nothing to do with actually playing, but rather with officiating.

El Duderino sticks the landing

Ultimate is a self officiated game. Like a game of pick up basketball, you call your own fouls and violations, and monitor the out of bounds or scoring lines together with the other team. Below are two sections from the rule book provided by the governing body, USA Ultimate (link)

“Spirit of the Game is a set of principles which places the responsibility for fair play on the player. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of mutual respect among competitors, adherence to the agreed upon rules, or the basic joy of play. It is assumed that no player will intentionally violate the rules; thus there are no harsh penalties for inadvertent infractions, but rather a method for resuming play in a manner that simulates what most likely would have occurred absent the infraction. An intentional infraction is cheating and considered a gross offense against the Spirit of the Game. Players are morally bound to abide by the rules and not gain advantage by knowingly committing an infraction, or calling one where none exists.”

Grandma comes to visit, and Speedy turns 10 weeks old.

As someone who is super competitive, there is a bit of a learning curve to this mindset. To treat every call, especially ones made by an opponent who has the most to gain from calling infractions, violations, out of bounds etc… As if it is being made honestly, fairly, and without bias, is not a default setting when I’m in competition mode.

I think most athlete’s, and certainly my natural reaction when called for a foul, is to become defensive and argue my case. But, this in and of itself, is a violation of the spirit of the game which dictates that players are morally bound to not gain advantage by calling infractions where none exist, and it is assumed that no player will intentionally violate the rules.

Brute force sandbags WOD with the training mask

I think this is very similar to the socio-political landscape we find ourselves in today. There are so many divisive issues, race being at the forefront, and I think the rules of Ultimate, especially the spirit of the game provide a great framework for productive dialogue. The rules state that players must:

know the rules;
be fair-minded and objective;
be truthful;
explain their viewpoint clearly and concisely;
allow opponents a reasonable chance to speak;
consider their opponent’s viewpoint;
use respectful words and body language;
resolve disputes as quickly as possible;
make calls in a consistent manner throughout the game; and
only make a call where an infraction is significant enough to make a difference to the outcome of the action.

14 day mobility challenge overhead position

These guidelines are obviously oversimplified for issues of sexism, racism, heck even a disagreement with your spouse, but the overall idea that we are in this together and are all responsible for protecting mutual respect and basic joy of Life, sets the table for more productive interaction.

One other important part of the rules that is worth brining up says, ” in the case where a novice player commits an infraction out of ignorance of the rules, experienced players are obliged to explain the infraction and clarify what should happen.”. Notice this doesn’t involve chastisement, or belittling, but rather education. If we operate from the assumption that no one is intentionally causing harm, and then explain the infraction that was the result of ignorance, we can all move forward together.

91° for the afternoon run and some new quarantine facial hair

I miss playing Ultimate, and I never thought I would be writing about it in a socio-political sense, but maybe we can all find a little spirit of the game and some SerenityThroughSweat, and we will all be better off for doing so.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Privilege

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. The intention of this blog had always been to present a positive and uplifting message generally based around my passion for fitness, fatherhood, and flying, and to avoid politics. However, given current events, I thought I would add my thoughts on privilege.

Let’s start the discussion with a definition. Privilege is a special right advantage or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.

I don’t believe I have the knowledge or the experienced position requires to discuss race and the inner workings of privilege that go with it. Instead I will tell you a story about a realization of a privilege I was previously unaware of.

It was 2009 and I was in an aviation safety and security class, working towards my Masters degree, with an interesting assignment. Our professor was an airline pilot on a leave of absence from his airline after the great recession. He was teaching as an adjunct professor in addition to running an aviation safety and security consulting company with contracts all over the globe.

The assignment was to identify potential holes in the aviation security of a local airport, and how those holes could be exploited. The professor wanted us to think like those groups who would perpetrate such acts in order to prevent against them.

I thought it was an interesting and valuable exercise, assigned by an intelligent and credible professor, and I went home after class and got started. To me, it seemed like a natural way to assess vulnerability. Whenever I was trying to break down a wrestling technique the best way to understand it was to try to counter it. It seemed like we were doing the same thing with the assignment, just with higher stakes and more on the line.

So I was surprised when I got an email ahead of the next class saying that the assignment would no longer be required, but would be an optional in class discussion instead of a paper.

One of the international students had reached out to the professor and raised his concerns. Putting his name on a written document that discussed breaching airport security, even if it was a purely academic exercise, was perilous to his ability to remain in the country.

Day 4 of the overhead mobility challenge, adding some toddler weight to the peanut soft tissue work.

This wasn’t something I had even considered. And I think therein lies the privilege. We were both at the same school, in the same class, working on the same assignment, so this wasn’t a case of different starting points. But this international student, (not that it matters, but a fair skinned European) was burdened by anxiety and concern that didn’t even occur to me.

What is the weight of that concern and anxiety? What toll does it take? How many of his choices or actions had to be put through that filter? On the other side, how liberating is it to not carry around that stress? To be able to act mostly free of concern of the potential outcomes? How many choices have I made unburdened by those fears?

Day 7 of the overhead mobility challenge.

I don’t think these are quantifiable questions, but rather are low stakes examples of the privilege I never realized I had. This blog is not and has never been a place for answers, but rather a place for self reflection and hopefully inspiration for the same in you the reader. So, I will leave you with these words from Max Ehrmann, in the hope that we can all look at ourselves and what privilege we may have.

“If you compare yourself with others you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.”

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Urgent and Important

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about a lesson that was passed on to me by a particularly difficult college professor. That is, assessing and determining what is urgent and what is important, and letting those assessments drive our task prioritization.

First let’s talk definitions, we need to understand what the differences are before we can make any assessments. Urgent, means something that requires immediate action, while important means something has significance or value. There is some great intersectionality between these two concepts, as well as some important differences. Tasks can be both urgent and important, but can also be urgent and unimportant. Likewise, tasks can be both important and urgent, or can be important but not urgent.

This was the situation I found myself in the other morning, being forced to assess tasks and prioritize their order based on urgency and importance. Let me set the stage for you.

It was business as usual giving my wife some well deserved extra winks in the morning and everything was as calm as two kids in quarantine can get… Until it wasn’t. I had a mostly calm infant in my arms, a rambunctious toddler playing at my feet, my pants around my ankles, and things moving along normally with my morning constitutional.

Speedy wanted to help with arts and crafts

Then comes that dreaded moment where the water containing your quarantine carb heavy log starts rising instead of falling. Like a shark smelling blood in the water, my infant Speedy picked up on my apprehension immediately, and responded with cries matching my mood. Not to be outdone by his little brother, El Duderino (the toddler playing with his match box cars at my feet) decided to add his hat in the ring for my attention, needing one of his cars fixed.

The first step in this equation is assessment, what is urgent, and needs immediate action, and what is important? (And remember the brown tide is rising). It’s hard to say that your children crying isn’t important, and as pilots we are taught to “silence the horn” before dealing with the emergency. So my general inclination in most situations is to calm them down to a noise level where I can think clearly. Brown tide rising and me one handed, is not most situations though.

The whole family getting in on arts and crafts time

So the kids crying is important, but not really urgent, they will survive crying for a few more minutes while I try to stave of the poopocalypse. Task prioritization is pretty much handled now, the troublesome toilet both requires immediate attention, and while not life or death, is pretty important if I don’t want to spend the rest of my morning dealing with a crappy commode and a funky floor.

Thankfully, in the brief moments it took to do that mental math, the water stopped it’s ascent, still below the bowl level. Now with some breathing room I was able to think about steps moving forward. Do I try to use the bidet sprayer over the tub still one handed with an infant in arms with a less stable seating? Do I pull up the pants and pray for a clean no-wiper? Do I attempt one handed plunging with a full bowl?

Dump truck is about as full as the toilet bowl was

As time slowed to a crawl and my task prioritization began to materialize (one handed bidet spray over the tub with infant in arms, put Speedy down, educate El Duderino on the full bowl plunging technique) the slurry gurgled down the drain after it’s perilous perch near the top without any intervention. And, while I was saved any of the heavy lifting, I was grateful for the mental walkthrough, however anxiety inducing and blood pressure boosting it was.

El Duderino checking out “scoopy” the excavator getting a bath on our stroller run

All said and done the water level was raised for about 90 very stressful and perilous seconds. Being able to identify, assess, and prioritize tasks based on urgency and importance, helped me turn the situation from what could have been a week 10 quarantine emotional breakdown, to something I can share with all of you as a learning moment or at least a good laugh.

1 mile run, 100 sandbag squats, 100 push-ups, 100 rows, and 4 min plank in the training mask above 90°. (Then a much needed beard trim)

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Happy Mother’s Day

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Being a father of two sons I spend a lot of time discussing fatherhood, masculinity, and lessons I want to pass on to my boys. With Mother’s Day today, I want to spend some time appreciating the women who shape our lives.

Pilot’s tend to be very mission/task oriented. You wouldn’t want your pilot to say “well folks our flight from NY to LA didn’t go exactly as planned, but we got you to Reno and that’s close enough”. The mission is NY to LA and the expectation is that the professionals up front will deal with whatever complications come up in order to complete the mission safely. That mindset is something I picked up from my mother at a young age.

I remember going to my mom’s office after school and stuffing benefits enrollment package envelopes so that they could go out on time. As a young kid, stuffing envelopes wasn’t the most fun task, and I’m sure I complained just as much as I helped. But, the lesson that you adapt to your situation and complete the mission was clearly there, and looking back, it’s something I’m grateful for.

Finding creative ways to solve problems and take care of your family is about as badass a mom skill as there is.

When we first started dating, one of the many reasons I was initially attracted to my wife was her ability to take on challenges and adapt. Covid-19 has given me even more reason to appreciate the strength and grace of my wife especially in her role as a mother.

Giving birth at home in the middle of a global pandemic (with the midwife still enroute) she made the day seem like any other day with her calm demeanor and poise. She has found the mental bandwidth to work from home, care for our newborn, parent our toddler, and still keep me on my toes when I lose my way. She has navigated the mental headspace of this unusual situation with the strength and grace that only a mother can.

I’m so grateful to have such strong women in my life, and I hope that my sons grow to appreciate them as much as I do. They are tremendous leaders, teachers, and nurturers, and they help everyone the come in contact with get a little closer to Serenity.

Happy Mother’s Day, I love you both.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s SerenityThroughSweat, stroller runs and social distancing

COVID-19 Tourniquet

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. As we slog our way through week eight (for my family at least) of quarantine, I have tried to spend my downtime brushing up on, or learning new, useful skills. (Most of the downtime is while holding a sleeping newborn, while the rest of the family tries to catch up on sleep)

There has never been a better time when it comes to free access to quality information. We have talked before on this blog about hobbies and activities that put you in a better position no matter what happens. Being physically fit, knowing how to grow your own food, brew your own beer (especially this one), or some basic first aid. Which brings me to the Tourniquet.

I remember first learning about the Tourniquet as a boy scout (age 11 or 12) and I remember joking with my friends that “tourniquets solve all problems”. If you don’t know what a Tourniquet is, I should first explain that this was adolescent sarcasm, and they do not infact solve almost any problems.

A Tourniquet is a device for stopping the flow of blood typically by compressing a limb with a cord or a tight bandage. The idea is if you have a severe enough cut on an extremity where there is a possibility of bleeding out, restricting blood flow upstream of the cut will prevent you from bleeding out. However, you are restricting blood flow to everything downstream of the Tourniquet, and blood flow is pretty important for, ya know, staying alive.

The Tourniquet temporarily stops the immediate threat of bleeding out, but it doesn’t really solve the problem, I.E. the cut. And with it’s use comes a plethora of potential complications. Leave it on too long and risk nerve, muscle, and tissue damage, or necrosis (tissue death). When the Tourniquet comes off and blood flow returns to the area, the body sends extra blood causing excessive swelling and further complications, especially since the tissue was already compromised by the cut.

After the quick crash course in tourniquets, (pun intended), it isn’t hard to see the parallels in our COVID-19 quarantine. Quarantine, shelter in place, lockdown, whatever term we are using, is like putting a Tourniquet on this virus. We can buy ourselves some time to slow the spread so as not to overwhelm the hospital system, but it won’t solve the problem.

As we discussed above, deciding when to take the Tourniquet off (lift shutdown orders) is a tricky decision. Leave it on too long and we will see damage to the downstream systems like unemployment, permanent business closures, breakdown in supply chains, food shortages, and potentially civil unrest. Take the Tourniquet off to early and we risk flooding the hospital system that has already been compromised.

Typical Tourniquet timelines say that any longer than two hours will result in neurovascular damage. There is no playbook or established timeline for lifting shutdown orders, but I think we are already starting to see some of that damage. It will be up to all of us as individuals and families to assess the risk and make that decision for ourselves. Some of us might be able to hold on longer with the Tourniquet tightened, others may already be suffering irreversible damage.

The point is, there is no right answer and everyone’s situation is different. Risk assessed decisions carried out with appropriate precaution should be respected. That might mean staying home if you have immuno compromised family in the home. Or, it might mean getting back to work with appropriate risk mitigation. We can do what is right for our families and what is right for the nation as a whole, the two are not mutually exclusive.

Thanks for joining me and stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

This week in SerenityThroughSweat, stroller runs with the face shield, El Duderino with his little brother Speedy, and Amish friendship bread baking and blanket forts on a rainy day.

Preparedness ASAP

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about how we handle ourselves after the dust settles. Hindsight is always 20/20 and there will undoubtedly be questions as to what we could have done better, individually, locally, nationally, and globally. While playing the blame game is gratifying, and I’m sure there will be plenty of nefarious actions/inactions to examine, the real truth is more important than fault.

ASAP, in this context stands for Aviation Safety Action Program as opposed to As Soon As Possible. (Although you should also make preparedness a priority as soon as possible). My master’s thesis was on Safety Management Systems in airports and a large portion of that I spent researching various ASAP programs. One of the core tenets of ASAP programs is something called just culture, and I think that is our only hope for unravelling this catastrophe.

The safety of the overall system is enhanced by collecting, analyzing, and applying data directly from the frontline. But, the only way to get truly accurate date is from frontline users who find themselves in hazardous situations largely because of a lack of preparedness, or mistakes. Just culture is the idea that we should be more concerned with identifying hazards in the system, both proactively and reactively, than reprimanding those who encounter those hazards. If people aren’t afraid of being reprimanded, they are more likely to point out their mistakes so that someone else won’t make them, and the whole system gets better

As an individual, how prepared were you for this event? When did you start to take it seriously? Did you already have some money set aside in an emergency fund, some extra food in the pantry? Have you been taking care of your health to avoid potentially complicating conditions that would put you at a higher risk? These are all questions that need to be answered, not so that you can blame yourself, but so that you can asses the vulnerability in the system and shore it up.

The same questions can be asked of our local entities. How much PPE do hospitals local hospitals keep in storage on a regular basis? How have your representatives worked to set up testing and triage? What have they done to help small business owners? These questions are asked not to sway votes come November, but to establish a better play book for the overall health of the system when the next crisis hits.

On a national level, what information was known and when was it acted upon from a policy standpoint? There are far too many political intricacies that are way over most of our heads to fully understand the process in it’s entirety. But the truth will never come out if the end game is blame.

You don’t have to scroll far through a social media feed to find memes on how both the left and the right botched the handling of this pandemic. If we can look at this from a point of just culture, we might be able to make things better for ourselves rather than tearing each other down.

I’ve written before about holding myself accountable for my own shortcomings, and I think that’s a vital part of Serenity Through Sweat. But, I think it’s also important to be able to forgive ourselves, when we misstep, especially if we can make the system stronger in the process. Honesty, forgiveness, and growth, are the best way forward after this pandemic, and the best path towards Serenity.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s SerenityThroughSweat, Speedy is three weeks old and the sleep debt is accumulating. A few stroller runs with El Duderino looking for work trucks, and an attempt at Amish Friendship Bread starter. (It takes ten days so stay tuned for results)

Nerve

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I wrote a while back about being brave (Fostering Comfort) referencing Ned Starks remarks in Game of Thrones. He tells his son the only time a man can be brave is when he is afraid. My dad sent me a series of quotes on my birthday this year that I think fit our current situation a little better.

“People often say I am brave, but I’ve never said I am brave. What I think I have is nerve, which is not the same thing. Being brave or being courageous is doing something you are afraid to do and I don’t do anything that I’m afraid to do. Nerve is different.When you prepare to do something, whether it’s sailing a boat across the ocean or climbing a mountain or doing anything that has an element of danger, you prepare yourself and your equipment as well as you possibly can given your resources. Having nerve is the willingness after you’ve done all your preparation to embark upon something whose outcome is uncertain and may be fatal”

Powerful words from one of the world’s greatest explorer/adventurer. Webb Chiles said this in an interview after completing his sixth solo circumnavigation of the globe at age seventy seven.

I’m not trying to compare going to the grocery store amid a global pandemic to a solo journey around the world, (although the former requires significantly more gear and planning than before all this happened). The similarity lies in the outcome, and the level of uncertainty.

This virus has turned everyday activities like shopping, walking, shaking hands, and hugging, into activities with an uncertain outcome. Trying to avoid a virus you can’t see, smell, or hear is somewhat of a sisyphean task. Even if the odds are low after coming in contact with COVID-19, the potential is there to be fatal.

That means everything we do now, what before seemed like everyday, ordinary, tasks, require nerve. We prepare our bodies, our minds, and our equipment, and then we embark on an activity whose outcome is uncertain.

In the interim, this will result in heightened levels of stress, anxiety, and fear. But, when we do finally turn the corner, we will all able to channel that nerve into other pursuits, serenity among them.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

This week in quarantine; the daddy drawn coloring book expands from vehicles to dinosaurs, I try my hand at baking bread, and a quick 5k stroller run with El Duderino to maintain some sanity and Serenity if only for the briefest of moments.

Faith, Hope, and Reality

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I have seen this quote from James Stockdale thrown out from a few different sources and I wanted to add my two cents on it. (You should probably take it, we are headed for a recession after all)

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end, which you can never afford to lose, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

The current reality is uncertainty. We still have a lot to learn about this virus. We don’t know the best ways to protect those we love and still function in society as we knew it. We don’t know what the economy, and more importantly our individual jobs and communities will look like after this is all said and done.

I have a tremendous amount of faith in the human spirit. Humans are capable of incredible things and I have no doubt that though this pandemic will significantly alter our trajectory as a species, it will not end it. However, faith and hope are not a tactical plan.

There are some things though that make sense to do no matter what happens. Simon Black, the author of the Sovereign Man (whom you should check out if you are not familiar), says this frequently about having a plan B. In a time of uncertainty where there is no playbook, a plan B with elements that are good for you no matter what is a good place to start.

If you have read this blog for any length of time, (thank you) you know that I’m constantly advocating for, and actively pursuing, physical, mental, and emotional, well-being. Working out, meditation, hydration, diet, sleep, are all things largely within our control, that are helpful no matter what. Whatever situation arises, you will be in a better place to tackle it from a complete state of well-being.

Budgeting is a skill that can be practiced and applied to many areas of our lives, and again is helpful no matter what. Confront the brutal facts of your reality, are you living within your means? Can you put aside money for a rainy day? Can you put aside food for a rainy day? Can you budget your time for well-being activities or hobbies that cultivate life skills. Scratch cooking, self defense, hunting, gardening, sewing, carpentry, etc… Will all be more useful in the whatever society emerges from this than watching Netflix.

As we move forward together to face whatever life looks after all of this, I hope that things will be better and brighter. In the meantime, reality dictates same drastic changes, and I’ll be working on my plan B.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s SerenityThroughSweat, my first time out running since speedy arrived, a stroller run with El Duderino, and some outside time with the sandbag and training mask. There has never been a better time to use a training mask. I used to get all sorts of weird looks, now I blend right in.

Dystopian Shopping

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. There is a lot of craziness going on in the world today and obviously there are lots of different ways to approach it. Trying to find the silver lining, I have had a lot more time for acts of self betterment, parenting, reading, drawing, exercise, mobility work… The list goes on.

I recently finished Altered Carbon a 2002 book by Richard Morgan that was recently turned into a Netflix special. In a dystopian future where human consciousness is recorded and transferrable between bodies, death has less to do with your physical entity and more to do with your downloadable content. In the book I found a wonderfully telling passage that made me think about some of our current struggle with COVID-19.

The man character Takeshi Kovacs, is on his way to go shopping for some new clothes and weaponry for his job as a private investigator. He has a flashback to a life he lived over a hundred years ago in a different body (I know that sounds weird, but the point of the book is downloading human consciousness into different bodies) and a discussion about shopping. To paraphrase, he used to think shopping was a mundane activity of necessity. You need something, you go to a place to procure it and the transaction is complete. His memory of the conversation that changes his mind is then brought forth.

His friend from a former life explains that we have the technology to doorstep deliver everything we need, but shopping as a physical activity, has never been phased out of human culture. Despite having the technology to remove it altogether, society has subconsciously decided that shopping is a physical activity that satiates a human desire for accumulation and interaction. It is a part of our culture and wired into us like DNA.

A captain I flew with once proudly told me he refused to pay for a cup of coffee at a hotel when they told him it cost $5 for just a black coffee. I told him I agree that $5 for a cup of black coffee is expensive but I don’t mind paying for a story. Tell me about the farmer who grew the beans and where they were grown. Tell me about the buyer who traveled there and bought them and roasted them. Tell me about the barista who stocked them and the method used to brew them. If the answer is Folgers from the grocery store, then probably not a good value for $5. (Sorry to pick on Folgers, no hard feelings) But, if there is a story and multiple human interactions involved, now we are filling in some human needs, and I can appreciate where my money is going.

I think this is an insidious part of the challenge that we are currently facing. Even if you have some financial stability, and you have a few days worth of supplies in your home, there is still a longing for human interaction outside of the dwelling that no amount of Netflix or virtual museum tour will satiate. The act of shopping, strolling through a farmers market, perusing the produce aisle, or simply trying to decide on dinner, are all cultural behaviors that have been ripped away suddenly like an old band-aid.

As we struggle to embrace the changes to our everyday routines, technology like home delivery and curbside pickup are powerful tools. But it is also important to remember what we want to get back to, which is that most basic of human interactions. I hope that we can all maintain some modicum of serenity, until that time.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

This week in social distancing has changed my normal workout pattern, but I was able to spend some more time on two wheels than I otherwise would have. One ride with El Duderino where we saw an alligator which he now needs to hear the story of every night before bed. And the other was some much needed time with Layla, my Tri bike.

The Trinity Nature of Serenity Through Sweat

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about what SerenityThroughSweat means to me or realistically all of the different things it means to me.

I grew up Roman Catholic and one of the main tenants and most difficult to fully comprehend is the nature of the Holy Trinity. Without getting into to much Dogma, Catholics believe in three essences with the same being of God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but all one God.

I feel very similarly about Serenity Through Sweat. To me the Trinity of Serenity Through Sweat is a momentary feeling, a journey, and a destination.

The momentary feeling can show itself in a lot of different forms. Some might call it a runners high. For others it might be the quiet solitude and mental clarity after a workout. It might be a PR or a technique you hit in a roll for the first time. The point is, it is fleeting feeling. Part of the beauty and the allure is that it is fleeting and it leaves you chasing more.

Which leads us to the journey. If you chase enough of those fleeting moments, you can eventually find an appreciation for journey. The habits and relationships formed while seeking the moments, become a source of pleasure, especially if you can already them in the present, and not just in retrospect. Finding joy in the journey also helps deepen the appreciation of the moments.

Finally, we have Serenity as a destination. This idea constantly eludes me and I find it a bit ethereal and hard to pin down a definition. The characteristics of the destination tend to shift and change with my mood as I think about it. Most of the time I think about a mental state of peace (hence Serenity through Sweat). I should clarify this doesn’t mean a state without struggle, but rather a state that embraces and appreciates, rather than laments the struggle. I think about a mental state of Zen whereby the path to the mental state of serenity is paved with our sweat, physically mentally and emotionally. I’m not sure if this is a mental state or destination that is actually achievable, or if it is more of a “shoot for the moon and you’ll land in the stars” type of destination.

All three parts are separate and have their own important place, but all three parts also build off of each other to make the whole idea greater.

Today’s Serenity Through Sweat was an 8 mile hike in the Bay’s Mountain recreation area. Last night I stayed up to watch the UFC card and ate at Buffalo wild wings while watching. As a result, I spent the better part of the hike doing some epic butt clenching to avoid what would have otherwise been an explosive situation.

I did have a really cool moment where I stumbled upon some friends. I say stumbled because I hiked with one headphone in and one ear open. This let me catch up on some JRE as well as be somewhat in tune with my surroundings. I had just finished listening to Adam Curry, and had just queued up Gary Clark Jr and Suzzane Santo who were jamming when I heard a very faint rustling.

There were seven of them in total and they weren’t the least but phased by me being there. I took a few moments to appreciate how lucky I am to have these cool experiences, especially while at work on a layover. Another moment of Serenity, another brick laid on the path.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.