AMERICA THE MEDIOCRE?

"America the Mediocre?"
Reprinted once again…some things are worth repeating.

"I want to rant for a minute about the changes in our culture today…

I will start out by ranting about the day I went to our daughter's soccer game at the local YMCA...she plays soccer in a "non-competitive" league...so, we're watching her little team of 10 year olds running hard to score, jamming the ball, kicking' the crap out of the other guys...winning!

After the score became imbalanced by something around 5 - 0, the ref blew his whistle and made the kids mix up the teams! Wait, wait, wait! What ever happened to WINNING as a goal? WINNING USED TO BE the driving force behind progress and positive change in our society...

I don't know what's going on here but it appears to this hard-working, striving-to-win-this-game-of-life writer that we are breeding a nation of half-assing, compromising, mediocrity-accepting kids...and we are in danger of this mindset deeply permeating every aspect of our culture.

OK, how does this become a relevant topic? Well, take a look at what we do every day? The few of us left in our freakish little sub-culture we like to call bodybuilding, or any related group of people that collectively choose to walk around with the strongest, healthiest physical selves we can possibly create - we must ask ourselves, what is going on with this feeble nation of ours?

-Who in our nation said it was bad to be man-like, masculine or strong?
-Who in our society said it was wrong to want to be powerful physically, and healthy?
-ho in our society teaches that winning bad?
-who in our society believes that it is not an important life-lesson to learn how to win graciously, and more importantly, how to lose with class?

Is not the end-all product of hard work and effort the satisfaction of a job well done, regardless of the outcome? And, isn’t that one of the ways we lay the foundation of something we call character?
This unhealthy but popular notion that we must simply surrender to some unknown force or relinquish our independence – or, worse, that we are simply trading away our own liberties in exchange for the relinquishment of personal responsibility - that is what is cultivating this permeating disease of mediocrity.

THE ULTIMATE SIN:
You know, to God-fearing Christians (and followers of just about every other religious doctrine invented by mankind) THE ULTIMATE SIN IS HOPELESSNESS...DESPAIR.

So, what does that mean? I'll translate it for you...if not rewarded for working his or her proverbial ass off to win, by victory, then any practical human would ask him or herself - "why should I try harder? It’s not going to make a difference anyway."

For our precious children, including our daughter who runs and sweats and plays her little heart out on the soccer field to have the chance to earn legitimate, solid victory - perhaps feeling the challenge and the thrill of overcoming a taller player, or perhaps standing prideful because she attended all the practices this week, and has done her drills and knows she has paid a price for taking the top prize...for these kids, what kind of lesson are we teaching them when we de-value the prize of victory by taking the “win/lose” out of the equation with these “non-compete” leagues? What kind of value are we placing on determination, hard work, grit and struggle?

We are living in a world where things are not all equal for every individual...life is never fair, and it's rarely easy.
But thus is life. And, you know what? It's ok.
Making things easy by taking the sting out of losing, by taking away hard-earned rewards, stealing away the chance to feel victory or the chance to learn how to lose gracefully - these things weaken our society by weakening individuality and the right to choose to be the best we can be.

Thankfully, like some of us out there striving to be the best we can be.

At 619 Muscle, we work hard to nourish the drive – to help find and feed the inner SUPERHERO in each of us.


Thankfully, there are still a few of us left around who try harder, take every advantage given to us, study, learn, train, practice, eat and sleep properly to nourish the most powerful, healthy selves we can be. There is nothing more GOOD and RIGHT than to work hard to become the best you can be. It is your personal responsibility – not just to yourself, but also to mankind.

SQUARE CHICKENS?
Seek your achieve own ultimate potential. Maslow calls these fleeting hard-earned moments peak-experiences. They are what drive the innate spirit inside us. Let's forego these current trends of mediocrity and accepting, tolerance of sluggishness and gluttony...Let's step up as a nation, as a culture, and be the change we wish to see. Let's begin with ourselves, building a nation of superheroes, rather than a nation of pellet-fed, de-clawed, de-beaked, emasculated square chickens living in fear and bathing in a stew of mediocrity. We are the Modern Age of Superheroes, and we can change things, one rep at a time!