Last weekend I was participating in a race called Beatty’s Backyard Beatdown Ultra Marathon. I’ve written about it before, so I won’t bore you with the details. One thing I’ll say is how great it was to be back out racing. It is always great to be around people who are there for the sole purpose to see how far they can push themselves. Boy, did some of them push themselves. The mental and physical resolve of everyone there was something to behold. I missed that and look forward to being a witness to it more and more as 2020 comes to a close.
As I have discussed before, one of my favorite things about running is the time it gives my brain to wander. This of course can be a dangerous thing. My thoughts go in many directions, both positive and negative. During the Beatdown my brain wandered to the oft discussed similarities and genius of both Michelangelo and Matthew McConaughey. I know it’s a cliche topic but one that bears more discussion. For those of you that may be unfamiliar with these two great minds, please let me briefly introduce you to them. Michelangelo was a 1500’s poet, sculpture, architect and painter. Otherwise known as a Renaissance Man. His works include the sculptures “Madonna and Child”, “David” and he painted a place called the Sistine Chapel. If memory serves, I think he only painted the ceiling though. Mathew McConaughey is an actor in the 2000’s that wrote and produced a film called “Surfer Dude” and has a brother named Rooster. Alright, to be fair to McConaughey he has been in a few movies other than “Surfer Dude”, mainly the cinematic classic “Sahara” with the great Steve Zahn. I know you already can see the amazing similarities. Now we need to discuss their shared genius.
During the eight hours I spent running at Spicer Ranch in beautiful Beatty, NV, I not only thought about Michelangelo and McConaughey, I unwittingly did some reflecting. The topic came in the form of a question. This question is one that I think many of us have asked ourselves and probably very few have ever answered. The question was, Who am I? I think next to “why am I here?”, this one of life’s most asked questions. Sadly, neither have straight forward answers and neither can be answered by anyone else but you. So during each 4.18 mile loop the question kept coming up with little progress towards the answer. That was until the other guy from “Sahara” jumped into my head. It’s amazing where the answer’s to life’s conundrums can arise. My answer to this existential question may have come from a television commercial. I forgot to mention in McConaughey’s list of great thespian achievements is his role as spokesman for the car company, Lincoln Automotive. I used to believe that Lincoln’s were just overpriced Ford’s. Let’s be honest, that is what they are. But they may also have put me on a path to answering one of life’s great mysteries. In Lincoln’s most recent commercial offering, Mr. McConaughey is heard narrating as a Lincoln SUV is driving down the road and a little known musician is having the time of his life. McConaughey declares, “Knowing who we are is hard, it’s hard. Give yourself a break. Eliminate who you are not first. You’re going to find yourself where you need to be. The adventure never ends because we are always on the way.” I have no idea what this has to do with driving a Lincoln but I immediately knew what it meant to me.
During the quest for answering the question “who am I?” I realized that I’ve been attacking it completely wrong. Instead of asking “who am I?” I should have been asking “who am I not?” This remarkable advice is so simple. Since few of us can precisely define who we are, we should first define who we are not. Understanding the thoughts, emotions, and actions we don’t possess or partake in will help illuminate the ones we do. Once we recognize the people whose opinions we don’t respect, whose friendship we don’t need, or love we don’t desire, it will clearly show us the ones we covet. By chiseling away what we are not we will slowly figure out what we are. When we do this we will ‘find ourselves where we need to be’.
After our birth, the sculpture that we will become is in place, it’s just going to take a little pecking away for it to form into the masterpiece it is meant to be. As our friend Michelangelo once stated “The sculpture is complete within the marble rock, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” Michelangelo understood that what something was to become already existed he’d just have to smooth out some of the rough edges to make it become what it was meant to be. I’m pretty sure Michelangelo was literally talking about sculpting a rock, but he could just as easily been speaking about the human condition. Both Michelangelo and McConaughey understood that to become who we are meant to be we must first remove all the unwanted matter surrounding us.
As you ponder life’s great questions and attempt to navigate this “adventure that never ends” always remember to remove the “superfluous material” first. What’s leftover will be the you that you were meant to be. Don’t worry if your sculpture takes longer than others. “Surfer Dude” and “David” weren’t finished in a day. Neither were you.
A Rock in Your Shoe 