F3 Knoxville

Ironies of Our Life Journey

THE SCENE: Cloudy, temp in high 50’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Burpees, 10 Cherry Pickers, 5 Burpees, 10 Windmills, Seven Baby Arm Circles Forward and Backward, Seven Wide Arm Circles Forward and Backward
THA-THANG:

Mosey to the landscaped island parking lot located south of the Northern Baseball Fields.  Bricks will be located at the entrance of the parking lot.  Each man will pick up two bricks.  We will do a Modified Route 66 around the parking lot.  Each man runs five parking spaces, does one Mini-Man-Maker, then runs five more parking spaces, does two Mini-Man-Makers, etc until he finally does 11 mini-makers.

Mosey to roadside start of the Serpentine Sidewalk.  We will do a Route 66 on this sidewalk as it heads to the Park Perimeter Trail running along the waterway.  We will start with one Dive Bomber at the first light and end with eleven Dive Bombers at the eleventh light.

Mosey to the end of the Serpentine Sidewalk where it meets the Park Perimeter Trail.  We will do 10 Imperial Walkers as a group.

Mosey to the beginning of Cardiac Hill.  We will run up hill stopping to do the following exercises at each turn:

  • Turn 1:  20 Carolina Drydocks
  • Turn 2:  20 Diamond Merkins
  • Turn 3:  20 Decline Merkins
  • Turn 4:  20 Bench Dips

Mosey to Parking Lot that is by the entrance gate to the Northern Ball Fields.  Each man grabs a CMU.  We will do the following in cadence:

  • 20 Overhead Presses
  • 20 Curls
  • Drop CMU and sprint to end of parking lot and back
  • 20 Rows
  • Drop CMU and sprint to end of parking lot and back
  • 20 Chest Pushes
  • Drop CMU and sprint to end of parking lot and back
  • 20 Squats with CMU at Chest

Drop off CMU’s and mosey to Pavilion.  We will do 25 Picnic Table Pull-ups

Mosey toward parking lot with landscaped islands that we were at for the mini man makers.  Stop at grassy area by ball field.

Football challenge:  Lilydipper throws ball down field.  First to catch it and bring it back wins.  If you are tagged by anyone you must drop the ball immediately.

Mosey to landscaped parking lot to pick up bricks we had left off.

Mosey back to AO.

MARY:
15 Boxcutters.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Ten men with one FNG, a friend of Goober’s who was visiting from Indiana.  His name is Daniel and we gave him the F3 name of Shrinkwrap.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I have been reading lately about Identity Formation because I have talked about that subject in a Sunday School Class at my church and to a group I met with in my work as a psychologist.  Eric Erickson’s theory regarding the states of Identity Formation is quite influential among psychologists.  You can Google either Identity Formation or Eric Erickson to read about the subject.  A very good book that talks about our growth in identify formation and as human beings is by a Catholic Priest named Richard Rohr.  It is called Falling Upward:  A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life.  Rohr talks about some important ironies for those who grow successfully as human beings (growing in the HIM type of way, not in the way the world might identify as successful such as in power, wealth or fame).

  1. The supposed achievements of the first half of life, we find, fall short.
  2. In our life journey we find that what we originally thought we were searching for is not truly what we are searching for.
  3. The way up, we find, is often the way down.
  4. We must sacrifice something to achieve something greater. Illustration:  the journey in literature.  (The Odyssey, Lords of the Ring, Harry Potter)
  5. Losing, failing, falling, suffering, and encounters with sin are a necessary part of the journey.
  6. It is often when the ego is most deconstructed that we can hear things anew.
  7. The demand for perfect is the greatest enemy of the good. (Rules and getting it right are more important in first half of life).
  8. Higher stages of development are often misunderstood and attacked by those in lower stages (think of how Jesus was attacked by leaders of “organized religion”).

MOLESKIN:

Prayer for Pinto whose mother passed away earlier this week.  Prayer for Hooker, her grandson, and Mr. Jinxy, her son-in-law.  Prayer for Goober’s friend, Bruce, whose mother and daughter died earlier this week.  Praise for the F3 brothers who were at Goliath last week and who did well there.  They also had a great bit of fun there.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Coffeeteria!

Shedding the False Self

THE SCENE: Blue skies and temp about 70 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Bottle Taps, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Rockettes, 10 Tempo Squats
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Light Post by Lower Parking Lot near trail that goes towards Lyons Bend Gate Entrance.  We will do Route 66 with the following exercises:

  • Star Jumps
  • Big Boy Sit-ups
  • Iron Mikes with both legs forward = 1

We next will do 14’s with Bear Crawls (Bear Crawl 1 light and Run 4 lights in sequence) until we reach the road that goes to Lyon’s Bend Entrance Gate.  Next, we will do 14’s with Lunges (Lunge 1 light and Run 4 lights in sequence) until we get to the bottom of Mt. Everest.

At Mt Everest we will do 20 Merkins, 30 Squats and 40 Baby Crunches.  Then we will run to the road above the Summit.

Next, we will Mosey south on the roadway until it we are by the big tree as the road heads east toward the stop sign.  We will run down incline by the roadway.  We will then do sevens starting with one Hello Dolly on bottom of incline and six Burpees on top.

Mosey back to AO.

MARY:
20 Box Cutters
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
9 men, no FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I am a psychologist.  I recently looked back on some literature discussing Eric Erickson’s research and theory regarding identity formation in human beings.  Eric Erickson was a German Developmental psychologist who moved to the United States and taught at Harvard, UC Berkeley and Yale.  In his theory regarding identity formation he stated that we humans go through various stages in life that help form our identity.  One stage, which generally occurs in adolescence, but which extends into adulthood, is what he called the stage of Fidelity.  You may have heard of the term “Identity Crisis.”  Erickson was the first to coin it. The conflict the human deals with in this stage is Identity vs. Role Confusion.  The individual grasps with who they are and what they want to become in their life.  That question of “Who Am I” encompasses vocation, sexual, and religious factors, among others.

Some psychologists and psychiatrists, Donald Winnicott being one of the most prominent, also talk about struggle between the False Self and True Self in terms of identity formation.  Winnicott theorized that we humans often take on the role of a false self in forming our identities – that identity relates more to what parents, teachers, or society wants from us than who we are authentically.  Winnicott felt that we are less spontaneous and real when living up to our false self ideals.  We are also more neurotic and psychological unfit when doing so.

If you look back on your adolescence you may remember your own struggles with identity development.  You may, further, remember trying to fit in with the popular crowd, trying to be the cool guy in high school, not wanting to be considered silly or atypical by others.  I can remember my son, Bennett (aka Puddle in F3) talking about changes that occurred for him during this stage.  He was trying to “fit in” with the way he dressed, with sports he played, even with the music he listened to.  He got to a point where he said “to hell with it”, I am going to be me.  He started wearing socks with his sandals because, well, he liked to when it was colder outside.  He later saw other people doing the same thing as him.  He decided he disliked some of the music that high school kids were listening to.  He found he liked Neil Young, Pink Floyd, stuff his Old Man liked.  But in exploring further, he found Indie music with groups that were influenced by artists like Neil Young and Bob Dylan, and groups like Pink Floyd, but who were creating their own music of a different sort.  He has led his Old Man (yours truly) to find and love some of these artists such as Jason Isbell, The Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Jack White, Raconteurs, and Shins.  Bennett found in exploring what he truly liked that other friends truly loved this kind of music as well.  And these seemed to be the kinds of people who were more passionate about music.  I remember taking a group of his high school friends to see 70+ old Neil Young play in an outdoor concert near downtown Nashville.  The kids were very into Neil Young as was this Old Man.

We continue to form our identities as we go further into adulthood.  We face identity crises at work, in our love lives, and in our search for what makes life truly meaningful.  Hopefully, we shed some of our false self skin in the process and get closer to our true natures that God gifted us with.  We, after all, were created in God’s image.  And, the Bible actually speaks of us shedding our false self skin, which it calls the “old self” , shedding what the world wants of us, and living out a “new self” which is what God created us for in the first place:

Collossians 2: 9-10:  Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

1 John 2:15-17: Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Pinto’s mother who is very ill and may be entering the final phase of her life.  Prayer for Pinto as well after injuring his ribs when moving some things for his mother.  Prayers for Messi whose wife has had seizures and may have to be operated on in the hospital.  Prayers for Squirtle’s ex-girlfriend whose 21-year-old daughter recently died of medical issues.

Life is Short — Give Yourself Away While Your Here

THE SCENE: Crisp, 43 degrees.  Chilly but not for long…
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • 25 SSH
  • 10 Cherry Pickers
  • 10 Baby Arm Circles/ 10 Bakkards
  • 10 Seal Claps
  • 30 Apollo – “Oh, No’s”
  • 30 Snow Boarders
  • 20 Merkins

THA-THANG:
Parking Lot:  High Knees, Karaoke, Skipping, Bear Crawls, Lunges, Mountain Climber

Battle Buddy up, Grab a CMU and Slingshot to Everest, 15 Squats and catch your buddy to switch.

Everest:  Blockees with overhead press.  Partner runs halfway up Everest, does 10 Big Boys and then switch.  3 rounds

Slingshot back to the AO doing 15 dips while alternating.

MARY:

  • 15 Snow Angels
  • 15 Superman
  • 15 Toe Touches
    COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Tooth Fairy, Snitch, Rousey, Viagra, Crab-Legs, Hands, Hot Tub, Waffle House, Flashback,

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Read a book over the Summer call the “Book Thief”.  It is written with the narrator as death.  Death takes the souls of everyone who has died.  Death is not angry, mean, or have any malice.  It is just his job to take souls once someone dies.  Every once in a while there is a soul that is so much lighter because that person has given most of themselves away in this life so there is not much to pick up and carry away. None of us gets out of the life alive.  Take the time to give yourself away in this life so you will be the lightest of souls taken to heaven.

“His soul sat up. It met me. Those kinds of souls always do – the best ones. The ones who rise up and say “I know who you are and I am ready. Not that I want to go, of course, but I will come.” Those souls are always light because more of them have been put out. More of them have already found their way to other places.”

Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Viagra as he works with his group to buy toys for kids in low income areas and reach even more kids this year for Christmas.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Brolympics II on Nov 9th.

Food Drive this Month

Am I my brothers keeper? Yes

THE SCENE: Perfect
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20x SSH
THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to Picketts Charge – run to each cone and do 3 Burpees x 8
  • Back to AO for RAW(Ratchet Approved Workout) 10 Stations were set up with coupons. AMRAPs while HIM carries Log up Baby Everest each him to complete two rounds
  • Mosey to tall hill next to the Dragon. Do 7s with BBS AND DIVEBOMBERS
  • Mosey back to AO

MARY: circle up on Six , do 3 American Hammers with jagged pills(protein powder containers filled with sand/water) pass to next him for three rounds, Lay on back w feet six inches and press jagged pills x5 4ct pass to next him for two rounds, tempo BBS X 10

 

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Lesson learned from Cain slew Able Bible verse. We are our brother’s keeper. We all have responsibilities to watch out and help one another.
MOLESKIN:
Special prayer for Code Browns wife while running a 100 mi race. Pray for Iceman and his wedding Saturday
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
collect food for Second Harvest

Durn Curmudgeons

THE SCENE: Sunny, temps in low 70s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Plank raises, 20 Plank Jacks, 10 Rockettes, 10 Cherry Pickers, 8 Wide Arm Circles Forward and Backward
THA-THANG:
Mosey to stop sign on northeast corner of Admin Bldg.  We will go back on the road that semi-circles around the Admin Bldg stopping at various cones to do exercises.  The exercises at each cone are as follows:

  • Cone 1:  10 Burpees.  Then, Barry Sanders to Cone 2.
  • Cone 2:  20 Big Boys.  Then Bear Crawl to Cone 3.
  • Cone 3.  20 Squat Jumps.  Then Mosey past parking lot to Cone 4.
  • Cone 4:  20 Imperial Walkers (both legs = 1).  Then Sprint to Cone 5.
  • Cone 5.  20 Squats.  Then Hop to Cone 6.
  • Cone 6.  20 Merkins.  Then Mosey to Cone 7
  • Cone 7:  20 Hello Dollies (4 count), 20 Iron Mikes, 20 American Hammers, 20 Dying Bugs, 20 Flutter Kicks

Mosey to Shaded Area near Park Entryway off of Northshore.

40 Baby Crunches

Mosey to Bottom of Mt. Everest.  40 Baby Crunches.  Then run up to top of Mt. Everest.

Rinse and Repeat on the 7 cone run on the road that semicircles around the Admin Bldg.

Mosey to AO.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Ten men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Helping the Curmudgeons of the World

As HIMs we try to help others in our community.  Some folks take our help graciously.  Others do not.  Some people are mighty difficult to help.  I have been giving a number of messages about helping such “hard to help” people.  Helping difficult people, the curmudgeons of the world, is hard.  If we can trust that God is also working with them, it might make it easier for us.  Our efforts may not reap rewards quickly.  Rather, we might be planting a seed that will lead to blossoming that is very slow to come.

Furthermore, we must remember that we are sinners ourselves.  The curmudgeon’s pride, disrespect, and lack of kindness may be sinful but that does not make us somehow superior to the curmudgeon.  In fact, the curmudgeon might be able to offer us something that helps us to grow as humans.

A wonderful illustration of how Curmudgeons can involuntarily be helped by others and help others as well is the book A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.  Ove is a true curmudgeon.  He can be downright rude and cruel to others.  He is 59 years old, has been forced to take retirement, and is pissed about it.  He hates life and wants out of it.  We find out, in the book, that the one person whom he did allow to get close to him was Sonja, his wonderful wife.  She saw beneath his outward stiffness.  But we also learn that Sonja has died of medical causes.

Ove contemplates and tries various ways to kill himself in the book.  But they are foiled by heaven, fate, or crazy people in his life that he just can’t get away from.  Two of those people are Patrick and Parvaneh, new neighbors who back up their U-Hual right over Ove’s mailbox.  Others are an overweight neighbor named Jimmy, a diffident mailman named Adrian, a flamboyantly gay young man named Mirsad, and a crazy cat that keeps on coming around Ove’s house when Ove would like it to go the hell away.  Ove begrudgingly helps each one of these characters (or animals in the book).  He feeds the cat and finally allows it to come into his home.  He helps Jimmy get a job.  He teaches Parvaneh to drive and takes her to the hospital to deliver her baby.  And, these people, also help Ove.  Although he wants out of life, they give him a reason to live.

It isn’t that any of these characters made the choice to help this curmudgeon called Ove or that he sought them out.  Rather, it is through their sloppy, confounding, odd, and downright hilarious interactions and relationships that each character grows – and takes Ove away from the incredible depression that was leading him to try suicide.

So, our interactions with others need not be smooth and on target to derive benefit.  Your attempt to help curmudgeons will be downright difficult and sometimes seem impossible.  But if you can be patient, who knows how God will work in your relationship with the curmudgeon.  You may plant a seed that brings about change.  And, God may work with your relationship in such a way that the doggone curmudgeon actually helps you!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Iceman gets married Saturday and Hooker’s wife, Carly, is due with baby in April!  Prayers for the aforementioned.