Another Olympiad

♨

In our Hellas, the Olympiad is of another kind:
endless pole vaults over the fractures of hell.
No medals are at stake in these fights
for Olympians washed onto a concrete shore.
A new day is the most precious prize—
a timed event in pulling yourself up from the bottom.
A nameless ticket for an airplane with no boarding stairs;
we wind up our start-ups and throw them to see whose flies highest.

Here, living to forty already makes you a champion …
and some leave the game through a noose,
never finding a hatch back to the surface. 🎧

Sport and training are life in miniature:

Here, the range of possibilities equals the number of sets.

The same mesocycles, the same principle of consistency without which no large
goal can be reached. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy of muscle fibers is an adaptive
response; the need for many mitochondria—the cell's power stations—arises after
years of high-repetition exercise under metabolic stress. Changes in habits work
similarly: the need for them emerges as an adaptive response after years of
activity that requires those habits.

“Everything always begins small, with dead seeds germinating again.” Only
through effort and attraction to something distant does a stem push through
concrete slabs.

Hey, you watching: do you dream of faraway countries? Does the Golden Fleece
call you? Do you sense a twilight awareness through sleep?

Then you were recruited long ago, and our order is bringing you into its ranks,
beneath its fighting wing 🌓 (ha-ha, hey). (Oxxxymiron) 🎧

The range of our possibilities is directly related to the number of attempts we
make, not to an instant result.

Each act of overcoming is not a test marked “succeeded / failed.” It expands the
range of what can become possible for us. The more attempts we make, the wider
the space of our resilience and inner strength becomes.

This idea of overcoming and training as an existential practice is presented
clearly in this video.

Existential training: how exercise teaches us to overcome life's difficulties without expecting a reward

When we train, we initiate demanding action and practice overcoming without a
reward. The remarkable psychological aspect of regular physical exercise is
that difficulty begins to be perceived as an opportunity for growth.

“Let us always stay in shape, so that when the treadmill starts moving beneath
us, it feels like our normal mode. An obstacle course? Fine—I do this every
day. One obstacle more or less makes no difference. I am ready; I am trained.”

How many plates of existence are loaded onto my existential barbell today, and
what do they weigh? ❓

Will today's set use ten-, fifteen-, or twenty-kilogram plates? ❓

I succeeded: good. Pat yourself on the shoulder and get ready, because the
weight of life's barbell may increase tomorrow.

I did not succeed: excellent. I gave one hundred percent, and tomorrow I will
try again. Every day is a new set that, when effort is applied, makes me
stronger.

At the peak of difficulty, be grateful that you have the chance to be here now
and experience it at all.

“This life is exhilarating because of the struggle. That is why we go to
train.”