To what extent do you listen to others?
While writing this I watched a wrestling movie called Vision Quest. I really liked the unique approach the character did on what he thought he should be doing in that era of his life. It made me think about my own life starting out and the short term goals I had at the time. It is important to look at goals from different perspectives. Both the overarching grand meaning of life goals and what you might do in weeks or months such as in this story. There was a point in my life where I had a good idea what I was doing. Looking back it might have mostly been in the short scale view but it just seemed right at the moment. I am thankful for those achievements as they are what helped reach further goals which I am taking on today. After watching Vision Quest I might have needed some fine-tuning to this thought process.
Maybe my problem was that I didn't have these short and long term goals working in tandem. In school perhaps I might have been looking one year out and that is very good to do, that is what this movie is about, but maybe you really need a five year goal on top of that. I thought it would have been good to do some traveling when I left school. Just some time to think while on the road. Get away from the chaos of turning in assignments out for a while. Seeing the world might have given me an idea for what to do. The more people and experiences you are around will give you a chance to run into destiny. I think I should have gone on more of my own quest to find what my destiny was. Done a lot more searching and been more less focused on what I am doing and more time trying to figure out what I was doing it for.
In Youth Group the leader gave us an analogy about what we want in life. He told us about how his toddler would cry for a bottle when his real problem was to get the diaper changed. I think there is a difference between a child who knows very little about the world and someone who has been around for several years and has some idea who they are and what their values. While you may not know everything about yourself you are more familiar with yourself than others are of you.
In the movie Rudy, which is based on a real story, his high school teacher strongly argued that he should not attend higher education based on how he performed in his High School courses. People told him to not enter football due to not having the optimal physique. I had a relative who decided to not go to college since his doctor told him it would be too stressful. He didn’t go. There are many considerations to weigh whether to go into higher education. The physical toll is only one perspective to think about.
"Last night man I smoked a pipe and I had a session with the everywhere spirit. And that was when it was revealed to me what you are really doing. You are on a Vision Quest man, you are trying to find your place in the circle."
✩ Koch ✩
"Last night man I smoked a pipe and I had a session with the everywhere spirit. And that was when it was revealed to me what you are really doing. You are on a Vision Quest man, you are trying to find your place in the circle."
✩ Koch ✩
Vision Quest is about wrestler named Koch who tells his teammate Louden about a Native American tradition called a vision quest.
A vision quest is an adventure the young men in a tribe went on as they entered adulthood. These trips includes times of solitude, getting deep into nature and fasting. Louden didn’t seem to be alone much in the movie at all so perhaps they are being loose as to what a vision quest really is. Koch does later admit to just making up the part about being Native American so maybe he wasn’t the best person to describe it. To whatever extent it is inline with the actual custom this story is about Louden’s desire to wrestle in a lighter weight class. What I like about his story is he goes out of his way to go against a relatively easy path for success. I was reading a book by the famous graphic designer Paula Scher where she said that a good approach is to look for the difficult ways to approach a project. Don’t do it the easy way. The hard route helps you stumble across inspiration. All those opportunities to explore possibly superior outcomes will likely get by passed if you don’t do it this way. It sounds like a counterintuitive approach but it really works! Perhaps that was one of the thoughts Louden had when he took on his challenge. Some people just like doing things the hard way for the challenge. I wonder if he thought about the benefits that may go beyond this one tournament?
Have you ever heard of Pelé?
What stood out to me in this movie was J.C. explaining why a person doing a phenomenal goal was so important that he would dock a day's pay and buy a suit to see it. I also like the ending line where he thinks back a lot on those decisions he made. They were not only a big moment at that time but provided many memories for him years down the road. In that way the short goal wasn't just short term at all.
They lived on as something he could dwell on later and maybe even shaped who he would become. We never see the time down the road so we just have to guess what would happen. The next section covers my rethinking on basics of life core teachings.
