Names And Score...

Amelia and Ty...

“Few are open to conviction, but the majority of men are open to persuasion”

This weeks "Saturday Stolen Post" rolls in from the other side of the US; CrossFit LA.

Clearly we all have a love/hate relationship with the whiteboard of CF, but also of our lives, and even though this post doesn't breath heavily into taking its outlook elsewhere, it still demonstrates perfectly how this simple numbers can mean so much, and yet so little. How its much less the caveman art on the board, but much more about how much better we are for having been there to write them in the first place. About how important the competition is..the competition we have with ourselves everyday over the ability to change who we are, and become who we can be.

While doing an intro with a prospective student last week, I was showing them our whiteboards and was struck by the fact that the jumbles of letters and numbers on the wall looked like a series of chemistry equations. To me it was a series of clear statements, but to an outsider it would make no sense at all. These names and numbers are a separate language, with our own jargon and our own math. It enables us to communicate easily and efficiently amongst each other, to know instantly when someone else is one of us, and to keep the outsiders at bay. It is our "open sesame" and our secret handshake.

In that sense the number is the key to it all. And it is also meaningless. It is a gravestone left from last week's workouts. It is yesterday's news while we move on. It is forgotten -- beaten, bettered and improved upon. For a moment that number is everything, and then it is nothing. 

The names and scores are hieroglyphics, representations of something bigger. They are the community, but they are not us. I am not my number; I am the moment when that number was born. I am you cheering for me. I am me gutting out one last rep. I am the new student overwhelmed by it all. I am the veteran taking a watchful, caring eye. I am the sum of all the energies in the room. A sum that defies simple math.

And when the energies have gone, when the room is empty and all that remains are the numbers and names on the wall, they are nothing but cave paintings. 

Strength:

Rest

For Score:

Rest

Comments

[chas]

Amelia and Ty, I just love the two of you. Looking at the pic for the post tonight, just makes me smile. You make peoples lives better because they know you. Love it!!

[vicki]

Ditto Chas!!

Really liked this post.

[vicki]

Have a Happy and Blessed Easter.
And go for the eggs!! (the hard boiled kind!!)

[Ty]

Thanks Chas, thats about the nicest complement a person can get. I feel the same exact way about you!!