I think the central motivation of my soul is evolution. I'm going to go so far as to say that evolution is godliness. Now this for me is a relatively recent phenomenon.
Most of my life I lived by Survival of The Fittests' cousin, No Pain No Gain.
Looking back this makes sense to me.
When I played football I played for a team that would go on after I graduated so of course my coaches and my teammates would want me to be as fit as possible to give as much of myself as possible.
When I was in the army, same thing. They wanted everything I had to give and I wanted to give my all.
Survival of the Fittest, No Pain No Gain.....no brainer.
I can now say with 100% certainty that both these mind sets are absolutely useless when it comes to raising my daughter.
My kid doesn't need me for a short period of time. She needs me for the long haul.
My kid doesn't respond to force,
Screaming,
Grunting,
Frustration,
Or
Bravado.
She'll just as soon goo goo gaa gaa as puke all over my face.
Survival of the fittest, useless.
I imagine the meat heads who cherry picked that idea from Darwin as imperialists and noblemen (the powerful) who used it justify some of the most revolting human behavior imaginable.
Darwin died in 1882. This is right around the peak of the British empire and the beginning of capitalism. The powerful in this time period were so indifferent to the suffering they caused around the globe that it makes me wanna cry.
I can imagine their conversation with God right now.... "Well see God, what had happened was that science proved that my family was obviously the most evolved because we had so much power......so uh, I .....I mean.....we figured it was ok to disregard these lesser humans, especially children and people of color."
Now I'm being cruel, I'm leaving out today's meatheads who until recently used science to further justify the behaviors that contributed to the financial crisis.
You ever heard of The Selfish Gene?
I'm not making this shit up.
"Well God, see what had happened was, see we were just um selling these mortgages and derivatives and stuff cause we were just following our scientific make-up"
Thankfully science has come around and proven that sharing is actually the best way to go.
"Our paper shows that no selfish strategies will succeed in evolution," Plotkin said. "The only strategies that are evolutionarily robust are generous ones."
Hurray for science!
Ok back to why I think this stuff is important.
I've read On the Origin of Species, and read what others, smarter than I, have said about big D and evolution. What I gather is that there has been a huge misunderstanding about what Darwin meant by fittest.
Fittest isn't who kicks the most ass, fittest is who is most adaptable to change.
There it is, the point of my whole post.....thanks for sticking with me.
Change, ladies and gents, is all there is. You adapt to change you survive, you don't you suffer.
Yeah a bunch of intellectual crap....thanks Ben.......
Sorry, I'll make this more practical..... one second.
Survival of the Fittest, No Pain, No Gain, are powerful ideas that have driven my evolution for most of my life.
Football, the Military.......Life Under Armour....these ideas served me, and those in power over me, well. Unfortunately those in power didn't tell me how to Armor Down. They didn't tell me about the challenges coming home, the challenges of being a dad, nothing.
I Armor Down because my daughter has the power now and I want my evolution to continue to grow in the direction of her happiness.
The changes coming my way require a new set of tools and techniques. Armor Down is not a denial of No Pain, No Gain but a recognition of its limitations moving forward.
So I Train.
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