Do you take answers simply because people give them to you? At least some of the time?
I’ll admit it: sometimes I do, and I have to remind myself that not to question is not to live. Seriously, why do we do that? Why accept that somebody else’s opinion is the correct one just because they speak it? I’m not just talking about blowhard internet assholes, but I’m speaking also of a lot of self-appointed “experts” in the world. Is it because they have some fancy letters after their name or they work in this job or they went to that school? I have some letters and I went to one of those schools. Neither really means shit for most things, particularly when it comes to figuring out this life or the human heart or knowing how to talk to people without being an asshole. And none of it prepares you for raising kids to be good people who live on this Earth long after your bones turn to dust. And none of it buys you a quicker time in the WOD. Everybody has to earn that, just like love.
But there is one thing that both Vassar and CrossFit taught me. It’s this: Go to the original source. Don’t believe the hype. Don’t believe anything just because someone told you it. To quote Walt Whitman: “You must find out for yourself.” I heard that lesson again and again in college, then it was nonexistent for the next twenty years as the world tried to sell me shit and more shit. Then I met Greg Glassman at my L1 Seminar in 2008 and he said, “Don’t believe me. Look it up. Decide for yourself” and “I think I was brave enough not to believe the bullshit.” Greg wasn’t just a breath of fresh air; he was the wind knocking me down and smacking some sense into me.
Find out what works for you. Don’t believe what you have not really examined. Be brave enough not to believe the bullshit.
Sometimes the simplest lessons are the hardest to remember. Question everything.
