#58The Meaning of Strength
By Dan | posted on 3 September 2009 | 11 comments
What is it, ‘to be strong’? Why do we push ourselves every day to be fitter, faster, stronger, more fearless, more capable, more efficient?
Who can jump the furthest? Who can run the fastest or climb the highest? Who can face the most danger? Who can do the most twists in a somersault? How could we get to a place in our minds where any of these things matter to us? Arbitrary things, all of them: quick to come and quicker to go; easily gained or lost, easily learned or forgotten; affected by the most random and trivial of things, such as lever length, genetics, training, tendon and ligament position, anatomy, injury, predisposition, substances, drugs, nurture, nature, anything! Meaningless. So where is the meaning? What gives our movement meaning?
In a few score years you will be gone. A few more decades after that the walls and gaps you jump will be gone too. Fast forward a few millennia and the very rock and stone it all rested upon will be altered, changed, and – eventually – gone too. Enough time and the planet itself will be stardust again, swallowed by a red giant. No records will stand then, no medals or points, not even the memory of those things. Transient, to be sure. Heraclitus said it best, ‘Everything flows; nothing remains’. So what does it matter that you can jump 11 feet rather than 10? Is it just ‘to be better’, is it our nature to want to improve for improvement’s sake? Is it that we must constantly prove ourselves to ourselves? Does it all come down to our conditioning, the need to compare and compete both within and without ourselves?
I hope not.
I think not.
What matters, surely, is us. What gives it all meaning, is us.
The temporal nature of things does not render them meaningless, not at all – quite the opposite. It is the very fact that all things are transient that bestows upon those things the potential for ultimate meaning – because that thing, that jump, that moment is unique and unrepeatable: much like us. So it really does matter, quite a lot, what you do with that moment! It is us who give meaning to the moments and the actions, both our intentions for and our actual experience of them, and each moment will be nothing more nor less than what we make of it. So if you do this jump simply in order to impress others, for example, or to beat your rival in a contest, and that is your motivation, that is your goal, your desire, then that moment’s or action’s meaning is no more than that: a flash of primal ego, driven by a no-doubt genetically-fuelled will to power. And where is the meaning in that? Is that really the best we can do?
But infuse that same moment with a will to understand who you are, through challenge, through adversity, through movement, and instantly that same arbitrary jump becomes filled with meaning, with power and substance. It will resonate in you, and throughout your life, and no doubt long after your body is dust. It means something.
In the end, the movements don’t matter. Truthfully, the art doesn’t matter – you could experience this in any action, in gardening, or fighting, or the study of quantum physics: what matters is you who practice the art, for you are what gives it meaning in any and every moment. So what does it mean, ‘to be strong’? Why is being strong better than being weak? Is it at all? Or is the process of becoming strong just a vehicle, a path for us to focus our own understanding of ourselves, our world, our lives, and our place in the order of things? And if so, does it then follow that the only real ‘success’ can be found through edging closer to that understanding, that indeed all knowledge is only self-knowledge?
In this case, a traceur’s true test is not in how far he can jump, or how quickly he can move, or how many muscle-ups he can complete, or even in his level of ability: but rather it is in what he finds in the art – what he finds in himself.
Labels: Psychology
About the Author : Dan11 Comments:
Great ending Dan, thanks for sharing this thoughts!
Take care!
Great post, I think its quite relevant
Wow, great food for thought there Dan. Think I need a lie down now though... ;)
A person can't create objective meaning for their lives (or movements). The best we can do by ourselves is to make up something that suits us the best as individuals or groups. Knowing this, competition is just as valid a meaning as learning more about yourself.
It is only when we have an external source, which can dictate absolute moral truth, that we will have any grounds for judging what is the more noble purpose. Personally, I think our innate desire to find meaning is evidence of this external source.
Not to get preachy, but my external source is the God of the bible who says that pride is wrong and personal awareness + helping others is essential. That's a good enough reason not to compete for me because that would fuel my pride - it may not do so for others though, but the other consequences of competition are harmful enough to be against it.
Thank you for this thoughtful and well written piece Dan.
Loved your post Dan!
I`d like to think that this is not only a test for a traseur`s life but a test for life generally.
Thanks for writing it, I truly enjoyed reading it.
By 
Agota, at
3:28 pm, September 04, 2009
Sam, hi. I would suggest that there is no such thing as 'objective meaning', but rather all meaning is by its nature subjective. The meaning of life, one might say... is meaning! And that meaning differs from person to person, moment to moment. Asking for an objecive meaning would be like asking a chess player what the 'best' move is in chess... of course, there is no answer as each move is only given meaning by its context and its players.
In the same vein, I suspect there is no external source - as every source we choose to refer to is obviously chosen by us and is, therefore, an internal one! But I digress.
By Dan, at
8:24 pm, September 04, 2009
An external source becomes evident when it makes itself known and you find yourself believing in it against your will! That's not choice. It's also why I "encourage" rather than try and "force" others to believe what I do - because God must reveal himself.
More on topic: Parkour has been a valuable means of self discovery for me. It also seems a lot better than almost any other activity at bringing people into the consideration of meaning and purpose in what they do.
Hmm, not sure its possible to believe in something against your will Sam... belief is subject to your will, I would suggest. We live in a 'participatory universe' (as Wheeler would say), and thus all knowledge is self-knowledge. Anything you know is immediately 'internal' I think. But yes, not to be discussed here..!
On parkour, 100% agree. Very much a transformative practice in the truest sense, and probably the most effective I have encountered to date.
By Dan, at
2:16 pm, September 05, 2009
grazie dan, for your words.. preatty inspiring.
ciao, hope to see you soon
gato
By gato, at
11:35 am, September 28, 2009
I Agree Dan thanks for that - I have some new parkour photography that I would love to get some feedback on
www.DistilEnnui.com - and navigate to the Parkour portfolio
You can track our current parkour shoots at our blog
www.DistilEnnui.com/blog
Thanks again for the inspiration out there
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