Will Not Be Televised

If you are reading this today, I’m likely under some log, or weight, or human in the GORUCK Challenge. Not much more to say other than I will see you on the other side.

Ready

If you can dream — and not make dreams your master
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same
– Rudyard Kipling, If

The GORUCK Challenge is likely the most physically difficult test most who face it will ever achieve. A team building event led by Special Forces veterans designed in part to simulate the sort of training and challenges they faced in their careers. You are required to wear a backpack — known as a "ruck" in military parlance— loaded with 6 bricks, a hydration bladder, and anything else one feels inclined to bring. In other words about 40-60 pounds. They advertise 8-10 hours over 15-20 miles. Every one I am aware of goes beyond that promise. They also advertise that they under-promise and over-deliver. Indeed.

I was supposed to take part in the Challenge last year but I broke two toes in training and had to simply shadow that class instead. I was really bummed at the time. Mainly because in the hour before I was injured was the first I had felt ready. And, this is the sort of event where the idea of ready has very deep and broad meanings.

The registration fee was transferable and I vowed to take part in the next one that was held here. That date is March 30th — less than a week from now. I met up earlier today for a practice ruck with some of my future class mates. We put in some good livin’ and started to really bond as a bunch. All of the months of training I have had leading up to this were put to the test. The running, the lifting, the dieting, and the sweat. Yet, even with all of that, today was the first time, this time, I finally felt what I was waiting to feel…

Ready.

Every Sunday

A few months ago, my wife and I decided to subscribe to the Sunday newspaper. Just the Sunday edition. They have yet to deliver that single paper to us on time. Not even once since we signed up.

Every Sunday we go to the door. Every Sunday it is not there. Every Sunday we call and complain. Every Sunday it is delivered about an hour after we call. Every Sunday we receive a follow up call to make sure we received it. Every Sunday we complain to that person. Every Sunday they have an excuse. Every Sunday we publicly shame them on as many social networks as we can. Every Sunday.

Every Sunday one of those people has the power to make it better. Every Sunday all it would take is one person who seizes the opportunity to care. And, if that one person took the time to find out why it is that every Sunday we do not get our paper, they might just find a solution that solves our problem and makes our lives that much better.

They might also find that there is a problem in the system that not only solves our problem but solves every problem of every delivery of every paper everywhere. They could discover a solution that revolutionizes the delivery of everything. They could be the one that makes sure that every airline never loses a bag or every package arrives at every doorstep on time and guaranteed. They could be the one that solves a problem that has stumped the world for the past 100 years. That companies from Delta Airlines to the US Postal Service have yet to fully solve. This could make them unbelievably rich and lauded as the person who changed entire industries for the better.

Yet, they will never know until that one person decides to make it better for just one other person this Sunday.

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