Last week at church a strange thing happened to me… I found myself childless for almost an hour! I knew there was a Distinguished Lecture Series Seminar going on so I thought it would be nice to have a little adult time and listen to something intellectual. The speaker, Dr. Scott Bader-Saye, was discussing “The Bonds of Affection in a Culture of Isolation”.
I got there a bit late, but what I did hear was the common discussion of late of how we all spend too much time in isolation these days due to our televisions, smart phones and gadgets. You know – how we have stopped talking to each other because we are too busy with our social media; how we see couples at dinner and one or both of them is staring at their phone instead of enjoying their time together. I get it. I see it all of the time and I am guilty of it – very guilty.
There was a moment during this lecture that hit me though. it is about how we have all become so egocentric that we think the whole world revolves around us and should cater to us. He was showing us a video of several people in line at a grocery store or something similar and they are all waiting somewhat impatiently for their turn. The narrator tells us that they are each wondering why all of the other people in line are making their time there so difficult. Then there is the lady in line who has the crying, whining, begging children. Everyone is annoyed at the fact that they have to listen to that and wondering how much longer it will take to get through the line. But then we are reminded that if we look at this mom as a person we find out that perhaps her child is autistic and perhaps her husband is at home sick with cancer and perhaps she is just struggling to get by.
At that point I started crying. Yes crying. Right in the middle of church with everyone there. I was shocked and trying to cover up the fact that I suddenly started crying when I realized why I was crying. I felt like I was that mom… struggling my hardest to hold everything together and somehow pull off a show that I’ve got it all under control. Here I am a single mom of 3 kids with a new business trying to do it all and make it all work. I mean, it will never happen! I will never be able to do all of this!
Then I realized that I am that mom… and so is everyone else. I had fallen into that egocentric place where it’s all about me instead of realizing that it’s all about all of us. As a good friend recently told me, we all have a story. Her story was that her husband recently died of skin cancer and left her to raise their son alone. She is fighting all kinds of demons everyday that I can’t even comprehend. You can read more of her story here: http://thrivingthroughadversity.blogspot.com/2014/08/everyone-has-story.html?m=1.
Then Dr. Bader showed us this quote… “A positive cause… is the by now well-established effort to build or rebuild local economies, starting with economies of food…. It’s purpose, to the extent possible, is to bring producers and consumers causes and effects, back within the bounds of neighborhood, which is to say the effective reach of imagination, sympathy, affection, and all else that neighborhood implies.” You can see the rest of the article from which this was derived here: http://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/wendell-e-berry-lecture. It means effectively that it is up to us to get out and make connections with the people around us and learn their stories.
All of a sudden I wanted to jump up and say, “I’m doing that!” You see, that’s what this place, CrossFit Odyssey, is – at least to me. And this is what made me and so many others love CrossFit. Now, I don’t want to get all Kum ba ya on y’all, but really, that is the goal of this place. Yes we want to get strong and we want to get healthy. But part of how we do that is by making those healthy connections. As we join together in our CrossFit box getting ready to sweat and suffer and overcome together, we get to know each other. We learn each other’s stories and we gain an appreciation for one another. That rarely happens in any other kind of gym because there is no real demand for you to invest in the other people in your environment. We don’t put our headphones on and hop on a treadmill and zone out. We don’t stand in a row and follow the movements of a teacher at the front of a room. We talk and laugh during the warm up and relate stories from our day. We work in teams. We compete with each other and ourselves. We cheer each other on. We lie on the floor in exhaustion and laugh together about how crazy hard that was. And we create bonds.
Since we opened this place I have learned a lot of stories. I have members like Father Arthur whose entire lives are committed to helping others. I have several members who have lived abroad learning about the world – in Africa and Thailand and Brazil – giving help to those who need it. I have members who have suffered hardships that I can’t imagine. And I have members who are strong – in their hearts and minds and souls, and it amazes me every single day.
So, if you want a chance to get to know your neighbors and learn their amazing stories, join us. If you want a chance to get out of your head and be a part of the community and a part of something great, join us. if you want to tell your story, join us. We would love to hear it!
The Journey to Extraordinary 