Pai Mei and Workouts

I was just watching Kill Bill for the 300th time. My favorite part is Cruel tutelage of Pai Mei. In those scenes, he constantly makes Kiddo do the same exercises again and again and again. The wooden block punching; The water buckets on stairs! The rice eating scene is particularly interesting. She gives up and tries to eat with hand as hunger trumps will power. And then he reminds her she is not a dog.

And I was trying to understand if these were more of will power building exercises rather than the actual skill of punching through the wooden blocks or Kung Fu in general. What if the tutelage is not so much about learning new skills but hardening of the soul, never taking pity on yourself and gaining more will power. An equivalent analogy will be a runner trying to take up running and "build up" to 5k or 10k. One builds stamina and body gets used to it AFTER the mind does.

I see myself applying same fundamental in the gym where I gasp for breath in last few seconds of a rep of conditioning drill. Or where I see myself trying to avoid putting that extra 5 lbs on the barbell. That extra reserve of will power is the difference between us on daily basis and it trumps over one having a natural ability to do more than others. I feel the actual ability is not something you can fully utilize until you have found out your limit of will power, that too on daily basis. Everyday is a new fight

Snobs and evolution

Half of the people I meet during my average week turn out to be bloody snobs. The funny part is they exhibit no unique characteristic whatsoever that entitles or naturally makes them to do so, for e.g. the royals or monarchs. Morning greetings are rare and greetings with smiles are even rarer. Genuine extroverts who once approached you with no hidden malice or agenda are a become extinct. Conversations have been replaced by scrolling text on the dumb smartphones. Facebook likes and pokes amount to the new eye contact. Libraries are modern day dust bowls. Town's social events are loosing attendance in large hoards to TV media who are feeding ever repeating shows and news. Today, we start off by disliking someone and work our way towards liking. When did life become so difficult? Or is it the new fabric of our nature as a species?

And how does one make friends anymore? By joining hallow clubs or meetups void of fun activities or joining those clubs whose only engrossing activity ends up being a drinking orgy around obscure bars? Or by sharing interests that do no carry any weight in living well today, with people we meet randomly.

The sad part is that it is becoming harder for me to stay out of this herd of new species. I feel at times that I spend a lot of my timing fighting this natural evolution and that people like me will be, as Darwin would say "...weeded out".