# 237 The Need to be Stupid

Mahler’s Monday Morning Motivator # 237

The Need to be Stupid (11-17-08)

Have you ever watched one of those shows on television where a series of videos are aired of people doing things that only morons or complete jackasses would attempt? You know the ones. A couple of guys decide to imitate a wrestling show they saw and one guy body slams the other down on a table with the intention of breaking it, only to find that the human body is slightly more breakable than a table, especially when said table is real and not a prop.

I happened across one this weekend of a group of college kids at a party who set shot glasses of vodka on fire and then attempted to drink them. This, by the way, is supposed to be the new craze at frat parties. One guy caught his clothes on fire and suffered serious burns on his leg. Another fired the shot into his mouth and missed setting the side of his face on fire and belching a three-foot plume of flame at his companion revelers while running to the bathroom to extinguish his bright idea. He, too, suffered some burns, but both survived. It is rather disturbing to think that these guys actually had the intelligence to gain entrance to any college or university, and even more disturbing to realize that here, in all their flaming glory, were our future doctors, lawyers and engineers.

Well, I had to sit back and have a good laugh, because in my own way this past week, I was doing something stupid. No I was not body-slamming friends into tables, although there are a few people I can readily think of that I wouldn’t mind trying that with. And, no I was not performing a Joan of Arc on myself with a flaming shot of vodka. Hey, I’m no saint. What I was doing was deadlifting. Yes, deadlifting. . . and deadlifting . . . and deadlifting. I started out on Monday and by Sunday I had deadlifted a 225 pound weight an even 700 times. Now, if that isn’t stupid, I don’t know what is. And, what is more insane is that I am not even close to being finished. You see, I joined this challenge to see how long it would take to lift a million pounds. As friends will tell you, I am pretty conservative and not one to throw caution to the wind. In this case however, my curiosity and my ego were prodded and poked to the point of no return and I wondered if I could even make a dent in the goal.

When I look back on my brief lifting career, it could have seemed pretty stupid for a 52 year old guy to suddenly decide to start lifting weights. What the hell was I thinking? There are easier and less stressful ways to lose a few pounds or get back into shape, but I threw myself into it wholeheartedly. And where did it get me? Here I am 8 years later, on the cusp of turning 60, and doing something stupid again. By my calculations, I’ve already lifted a good-sized locomotive, albeit a piece at a time. With that in mind, I cannot find it within me to quit, regardless of how stupid it might seem.

I wonder how many things we take for granted today were the result of someone just going ahead and doing something stupid. Hell, while not major accomplishments, the Guiness Book of Records is full of people who found the need to do something stupid, to beat the other stupid guy who did the stupid thing before they got the stupid idea to beat his stupid record. And when they beat it, I can bet you they didn’t feel stupid at all.

I’m going to try to be careful. I am going to try to keep as much common sense about this challenge as I can. But, I am also going to try to finish, even if I don’t make it to one million first. Why? Because no matter how knowledgeable we may be; no matter how intelligent we fancy ourselves to be; no matter how much pride we take in our good sense, every so often, life presents us with an opportunity, an opportunity that we cannot ignore. At that point, we need to become ignorant of all that we know. We need to throw common sense out the window. We need to let that inner voice be heard telling us to go for it. And we need to be stupid.
____________________
Copyright 2004-2008 John R. Gesselberty. Mahler's Monday Morning Motivators (MMMM) may not be copied or used without permission of the author. All rights reserved.