ON BEING HUMAN

Anyone familiar with my writing is most likely aware that I am a misanthrope.  My distain for humanity en masse is great, and I take great delight in pointing out the constant foibles, pit falls, mistakes and failings of humanity.  From the nature of humans to their actions to the societies they create, I am never at a loss of something to deride and denigrate.  Yet, amazingly, what I find most despicable in many humans is their constant striving to NOT embrace their humanity, but to instead attempt to shed it someway.  In something of a paradox, while I can’t stand humans, I feel like I am the only one actually trying to BE human.

Or, at least, whatever this is

“Hey, isn’t this a lifting blog?”  Yeah, stick with me, I’ll get to that.  We are a flawed race, that much is certain.  But many choose to ignore these flaws rather than to recognize them, embrace them, and then OVERCOME them.  People experience bugs and hiccups as a part of existing and are in such a rush to “fix” them and return to a state of equilibrium that they miss out on the experience of “being”, and more specifically, of being HUMAN.  There is so much concern with eliminating all feeling of pain, suffering, adversity and even mere inconvenience and boredom to manufacture a state of constant nirvana like bliss that is alien, and in doing so we make ourselves weaker.

What am I talking about?  I’m talking about how people want to know how people who train in the morning have energy for the rest of the day.  The answer?  They don’t!  They get up, they feel exhausted, and then they train and they feel miserable, and then they go through the rest of their day feeling tired.  Because that’s what happens to an actual human when you deprive them of sleep, wake them up from their natural circadian rhythm, have them engage in rigorous exercise absent of sunlight and then force them to have a full work day after that.  That is a normal human way to feel in those situations.  But people want the answer; they want the cure, the fix!  And others create the cure, and you take caffeine and pre-workouts and upper and you time your nutrients and perfect your sleeping ritual to ensure you get your maximal restful allowance and guarantee that, even though you aren’t getting enough rest, you feel rested.  What sort of abomination have you become?

I mean, this guy ALSO sees no sunlight, works all day, and seems to be constantly energized

How do I trick myself into thinking exercise is fun?  It’s not!  And yet people try all manner of hypnosis and self-talk to try to trick themselves into becoming a masochist.  They want toil and hardship and pain and misery to be fun.  To be recreation!  To be blissful.  How horrifying!  What sort of deviant have you become?  Surely not human, but some sort of sick, twisted monster that exists of pain and suffering.

What of those that refuse to suffer the indignation of a bad day? They ponder and question how they can control every external variable to ensure that they always present peak performance.  Optimal sleep, optimal nutrition, optimal time of day training, optimal recovery protocol, an optimal life for a NON-OPTIMAL LIFEFORM.  You are human; you are imperfect.  You are damaged.  Your attempts to ignore and avoid your imperfection prevent you from learning how to live with and, therefore, thrive through your imperfection.

Some of us are more damaged than others

You are not overcoming; you are simply becoming.  You do not become super-human in your attempts to become inhuman.  Relish your humanity, understand your nature, and embrace these shortcomings, because it is only once they have been acknowledged that you CAN overcome them.  You do not have a bug in your DNA; this is simply what you are.  You don’t need to cure, it; you need to endure it!  You need to beat it through persistence, determination, will and tenacity, for THESE are what make us human. 

A necessary quality of a “super-human” is in fact that of BEING human.  The super-human still maintains their humanity, and still feels the pain of training, the anguish of toil and the fatigue inherent in exhaustion, but they continue on in spite of these feelings because they are well accomplished and practiced in overcoming this adversity.  They acknowledge the pain as real, and they acknowledge that it is happening to them, and they in turn also acknowledge that it is within their power if they will continue on or stop, but they do NOT try to convince themselves that the pain is positive and a joy that they seek.  They are, in fact, still human.

On the left: alien.  On the right: human (mutant).  Note the difference.

And when it gets to be too much and you breakdown, HAVE that breakdown.  Do not hide from the feelings of shame, disappointment, pain, regret and fear.  Do not try to convince yourself that this is what you wanted.  Do not try to hide with drugs, social media, self help gurus and other distractions.  Feel these human feelings and know them, so that you know that you find them offensive and have even more reason to continue on. 

Attempting to hide from these feelings of being human is what creates mediocre humans.  The blissful nirvana that one attempts to create through the absence of human feelings is tepid and lukewarm, with no real thrills or actual feelings of satisfaction.  There is no success to be found here, because there is no failure to contrast success against.  Become MORE than human by first choosing to be as human as you can be.