Will and Gameness...

I hurt myself a few weeks ago, and today I hurt also. I'm not in a bad mood or emotionally distraught. I just hurt, physically. It seems as if every injury I've ever had, every stupid mistake, every broken bone or dislocated joint is whispering in my ear, clamoring for my attention like a bunch of unruly kids. I deal with it, it's part of getting old, part of the price we pay for the honor of wisdom. I want to laze around today and not do a damn thing, I know I can't but the aches and pains sap the will and make it harder to start the day. Robert Pirsig called it a "Gumption trap" I laugh at the words, so true.

Will, lack of it is what's keeping me sitting here in this chair typing on this blog, while the presence of it allows man to do great things. From climbing mount Everest to surviving the most terrible accidents and conditions, it's a persons will that keeps them going on.

I had an interesting experience a few months ago while I was scrapping wire out of an ancient building a small company I started had contracted out for destruction. I usually did the salvage or scrapping because the job did not have a lot of money in it, barely enough to pay for my hands and equipment. If I let the hands scrap the material' it tends to walk off, never to be seen again.

I remember I had a shoulder injury from a sparring accident that I had been doing rehabilitative rotator cuff exercises on the night before. My shoulder was incredibly sore. So much so that it felt as if I had plugged my hand into 220V socket when I hit certain positions with it. It smarted.

After about 6 hours or so of using a pair of 48" bolt cutters on the wire and copper pipe I was reduced to finding new ways with which to close the cutters. my shoulder hurt so bad that I couldn't summon the will to work the tool. I had found a large piece of copper main cable running up a wall. Thank god I didn't have to use the cutters on the cable. I did though use a crow bar to pry off the piece of 2x4 that had been nailed over the cable to keep it in place. I slipped the pry bar between the 2x4 and the cable and, using my hip strength ripped the wood from where it was nailed. It came off like an explosion....It hit me right on the nose.

Anyone that's ever been in a fight may be familiar with the curious *POP* you hear/feel when you break your nose, the disorientation, the rushing pain and weakness. Suddenly I was more concerned with finding a towel to stop the bleeding with than scrapping.

During all of this I noticed a curious thing; I felt my will leave. It was as if someone had pulled a stool our from under me and I was falling to the ground. My mind was filled with reasons to leave, excuses, and curses. I was done. During one of the little mini tirades I was having with myself I had said something that turned my frustration at the situation into anger at the building for thwarting me. It was incredible. I felt my will come back. Suddenly I was ready to go back to work. I hurt no less, as a matter of a fact I hurt more than I had when all of this started. I had will and nothing stopped me the rest of the day.

Philosophers have puzzled themselves, created philosophies and wrote texts concerning themselves with the concept of will. Friedrich Nietzsche, Niccolò Machiavelli, Antithenos and Miyamoto Musashi, all their works concerned themselves a great deal with the concept of will.
Whether they called it no michi (no mind = just do it), will to power, or god. I read 'will' when I read their works. You don't just see it in philosophy and religion will can show up in the most unforeseen places.

One of my friends Tila Tequila seems like a real sexpot, but get to know her and you'll find she has a will of iron, she's going places and nothing will get in her way. Luckily she has the tools to get her there. If she were ugly and could not sing she would probably run out of will before she met her goal. So that tells us that will has a motivational component. Some would argue that motivation and will are the same things. I say that they are not. Will can feed motivation, but motivation cannot generate will.

In my next post I will talk about and old word called Gameness and how it relates to the concept of will. We will also talk about a misunderstood animal and how this animal might prove that there is a genetic component to will.

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated failures.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
Calvin Coolidge

See ya next blog.

Shane