What is important is that I have found great comfort in his words in times when there was not a great comfort anywhere else.

My students have likely heard me reference “This is Water,” the title of DFW’s famous commencement speech at Kenyon College, at least once during their time in my class.This speech is, in just a few minutes, the best description I’ve ever heard of the meaning of life. (This piece meant so much to me that my wife and I made it our theme at our wedding in January.)

In the last few days, somebody released a fictionalized film version of DFW’s talk. I have watched it repeatedly, oftentimes with tears streaming down my face for reasons that, like the particulars from before, aren’t particularly relevant to you.

But I suspect if you watch it, you will draw your own meaning from it.

“The capital T truth is about life before death.”

Thanks to some amazing friends and support from people who believe in So Far Appalachia, I guess it’s time to get back to it.

People who haven’t been exposed to CrossFit (or exposed to CrossFit boxes that don’t focus on technique) are concerned that the combination of Olympic lifting, gymnastics, and sprint exercises will be too hard on their bodies, and that surely they will hurt themselves.

Here is my answer.

If you end up at the wrong box, that’s certainly an issue. If you aren’t trained to use your body properly, you can absolutely injure yourself just as you might injure yourself by lifting objects with your back instead of your legs.

When done right, though, CrossFit is an experience like nothing else you’ve ever had in a gym. You aren’t isolating muscles and building them for show; you are creating full body strength, balance, and endurance.

The best part about CrossFit: the amount of weight you use doesn’t matter, your technique does. (This is much harder on your ego than it is on your body.) I spent the first 6 months lifting very little weight as I learned how to lift.

I had to unlearn a lifetime of bad lifting habits. The result, though, is that I’ve gained more strength and endurance than I’ve ever had in my life just by focusing on building a better lifting technique. My body hurts less, my back is stronger, and I move easier because of a relentless focus on technique.

So the answer to the injuries question is always the same: No, you won’t injure yourself; yes, you will hurt.

You will hurt because you will learn to use all of your muscles in the way they were made to move. You will lift, squat, and jump in ways you never considered. Your ego will get bruised daily as you strip weight off the bar, and still struggle to do movements correctly.

And then, one day, you will be stronger than you were yesterday.

This is CrossFit.

* * *

While we have great coaches at CrossFit Broad Ripple, my wife and I also spend a good deal of time watching videos like these to help us better understand what happens in each movement.

Very quickly you will notice that Olympic lifting is a bit different than curls.

The Snatch

The Clean + Jerk

CrossFit Exercise Demos

There are 93 videos here. You can let them all play, or you can click into the playlist

I have a little notebook of “Things to Tell the Kids.” Most involve gender-less advice such as “Find your voice,” “Be active in your life decisions,” and “Be the person you mean to be.”

There are some that are more gender related.

In our CrossFit community, I hear concerns (usually from the women) about strength. To be clear, these women aren’t concerned they are getting stronger; they are concerned that their muscles don’t match up with what we traditionally think of as feminine.

Intellectually I can understand the concern, but emotionally I have a hard time wrapping my brain around it. I can’t imagine anyone ever telling me to stop trying to become strong at whatever I’m doing. I can’t imagine going through life concerned that if I did, I would also have to worry about how that was perceived.

Certainly I was taught that showing emotion is a sign of weakness, but today it is expected that as a man I will be in touch with that side of myself. Few, though, would dare say that a man was less of a man because he showed compassion or emotion.

After hearing this discussion take place between the women at the box, I came home and scribbled this into my book of “Things to Tell My Daughter.” (And I figured maybe women of CrossFit Broad Ripple might benefit from hearing this as well since I’m nearly old enough to be at least their crazy Uncle.)

Skinny is easy; strong is hard.

Skinny is an act of reduction. It is about NOT doing things. It’s about not eating, or not working out. It is about maintaining what you have, and striving for a little less.

Strong is the opposite. It’s about picking up heavy objects, and pushing yourself past where your mind tells you to stop. It is about building what wasn’t there before. It is about sweat, and tears, and aches, and pains.

Strong isn’t just beautiful, it’s earned.

In your life, always aim for strong.

Not so for this player. Take 10 minutes to watch this video, and be reminded of what makes a life count.

Read the full story at Grantland.

The math is starting to work against the project.

I don’t like to live in negative spaces. Until recently, I never considered what my life would be without writing. Now, I contemplate it every day.

The truth is I can’t really conceptualize what that might look like. I can’t imagine putting this project aside, and laying down my pen for the last time. My mind doesn’t yet accept the possibility (and my wife continually tells me “I chose hope.”) even as I know that reality may come to pass.

As I struggle to sleep through the night, and worry about how I might convince another 120 people to contribute to my project, I wake up every day thinking about this:

I watch this, I laugh, and I get back to trying to move the mountain for another 15 days.

Listen to “Bill Nye, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, theoretical physicist Brian Greene, Science Friday’s Ira Flatow, popular science fiction writer Neal Stephenson, executive director of the World Science Festival Tracy Day, and Origins Project director Lawrence Krauss” talk about the stories in science that inspired them.