The Dream Antilles: febrero 2014

A Poor Workman Always Blames His Tools

Your Bloguero is amazed. US speed skaters claim that their performances have been hindered by an Under Armor racing suit jointly engineered by UA and Lockheed Martin.They say it's slowing them down. Right. They're one whole second or more per lap slower than the winners because of a suit engineered to save them a few thousandths of a second per lap. Instead of placing first and winning the expected gold medals,they're coming in 33rd or so. And now they're reverting to old suits, also made by Under Armor. They have confidence in those. Why? Because they won events wearing them at the world championships. Can anyone here spell "neurosis?" Or "superstition?"

As a former (and not very talented) runner, your Bloguero can tell you that the Buddha was right when he talked about timed events (life being the longest one, speed skating being of much shorter duration and significance). He taught this Gatha: "From interdependent causes all things arise and fade away." Here the focus isn't on the fading, impermanence end of the equation, the one your Bloguero consistently notes. It's the interdependent causes. The racing suit is easy to isolate and complain about. Heaven help anybody who focuses instead on the multitude of other interdependent causes, like mental toughness, "athleticism", competitiveness, training, coaching, diet, weather, distractions, and, please do not forget the sports writers' favorite, the intangibles.

Meanwhile, your Bloguero notes that his third novel is creeping along far too slowly to be satisfactory. He wonders today whether the lack of swift production might be because he's been wearing an Under Armor sweatshirt. Tomorrow he has a plan. When writing time arrives, he'll resurrect his old, tattered, ripped African Nations Football t-shirt and see how much his performance is enhanced. Your Bloguero does not have confidence that will change very much.

In the interim, he'll remember that old poor workman's saw.

Etiquetas: limbics, lockheed martin, Olympics, sochi 2014, speed skating, under armor, winter olympics

Enough!

Your Bloguero just got the text message from CodeRed. It warns of yet another winter storm, more than a foot of snow, extreme cold, and yadda yadda. This idea arrived embedded in the text: maybe this is the last big winter storm for this season? And maybe the next thing is crocuses.