Odyssey

The Song I Wrote This Blog To

The day is sunny, while the air is cold and crisp. The early morning orange glow has seeped through your blinds, covering your body with stripes of black. The weightlifters rise out of their bunks with stretching arms and achy backs. A warm shower hits your back as you bow your head towards your feet. Your eyes are wide open, as your mind races through the checklist of who you are, what you have accomplished, what you still need to accomplish, and flashing images of the hell coach will cast upon you once this quiet early morning comes to a close. You choose to drip dry as you brush your teeth bare naked, which goes against your usual routine of drying off thoroughly with a towel.  Your blood starts to pump though your body a little faster the more you wake. You throw up a bicep pose while the tooth brush takes a break to admire your strong muscles.  Fox news is in the background as you pour a bowl of cereal. The peaceful chatter and the sound of the cereal hitting the bowl could make a grown man cry from its simple beauty.

Quiet before the storm. Peace before war. Heaven before Hell. You gently rest your hand over the coffee maker's left cheek, while singing a random Christmas song to her. You are excited for Christmas even though it's only May.  You are excited for what she will give birth to in the next few minutes, and how happy it will make you feel inside once you have her in the palm of your hands. The coffee drips with rhythm, as each drop has its own personality and desires. You look up to see coach standing on your living room table, waving his hands in the air while his eyes are closed shut, and his head tilted back. The strings connected to his fingers are casting a web all over the house as you try to maneuver closer to him.  No, you can't touch him, for he is in a glass bottle. Coach is connected to everything this morning has had to offer you. The small little red dots all over your naked body are from the strings attached from coach to you. You are a puppet, and everything you think you have control over.....well, you don't.

When I watch our videos, another video is watching me. I then watch that video of me watching the first video, only to feel the presence of another video watching me watch the second video. Time and reality seem to be slipping away. The red eye has lit up the morning from orange to red, and my front door has turned from wood to a glass lens looking out into the gym.  My teammates wave me in from the other side as I stand there drinking my coffee, naked, and in complete peace. I have surrendered to the whys and how’s. I have let down my conscience and I now just dance when things don't make sense. This sport doesn't make sense, and how coach went from standing in my living room to playing the violin on the other side of the lens has confused me. I guess what all this means is that we must train. We must train no matter what. You know what I mean? It doesn't need to make sense to be understood. No matter what is happening in our lives we must train through it, by it, and right over the top of it.  When life doesn't add up, the training will.  Over time, all the training will pay off like a bank account you have been growing for years and years. At the end of the day, I guess the most confusing things in life are really the most simple. A peaceful morning is only peaceful because of the pain you and I endure during the day.  I feel that weightlifters appreciate down time more than anyone else. We are at war in the midst of the hardest sport in the world, so we must train.

Coach, coffee, and shower 2016