Ontological Shock

The year was 2007. I was a senior in high school, in AP Literature class taught by the brilliant Amy Buckley, and learning what a motif (a recurring theme) was for the first time. To this day, I still don’t know how to describe the explosion in perspective that I inherited at that time other than this: imagine the “mind blown” emoji. Then multiply it by 100.

“Wait, so you’re saying basic things like the weather in a story can mean more than just the weather?”

“Yes.”

“WHAT?”

I muscled my way through annotating books that year at the same speed I muscled my way through sports at the time – ALL OUT (and very much to a fault). Put it this way, if the goal of taking notes in a book was to help make lines/bits of information stand out, I’d often highlight so much that nothing I marked really stood out after all; I was effectively re-coloring the background of my books from off-white to neon yellow. #embarrassing  

It got worse before it got better. I’d ravage any text I got my eyes on that year, hunting for hidden meaning like my life depended on it. Cereal boxes became treasure maps, watching TV shows suddenly required note-taking, and reading “the sky was blue” would result in a three-page write-up pertaining to its metaphor for life… Well, all that until Ms. Buckley kindly reminded me one day, “Kimmy, sometimes the sky is blue means just that – the sky is blue.”

This silly story and example aside, can you remember a time in your life when the framing by which you viewed the world got shattered? If nothing specific, what about an instance where you experienced what felt like information overload? Like you took a peek in Pandora’s Box, and looked away feeling not invigorated, but overwhelmed!

Besides a gentle reminder that perspective shattering experiences are an inherent part of life, I share this with you for this reason: 

Per DEUCE’s deliberately developmental culture, remember that the more you actively seek new perspectives out, the more constructively calloused you’re likely to become. This in turn can fuel you to consistently pursue new growth(!), rather than let a fear of discovering what you don’t already know keep you stuck where you are.

Also remember that structures help provide anchors to meaning. In a world saturated with messages and, well, bouts of ontological shock, don’t lose sight of how valuable regular practices, such as strength & conditioning training, can be. At the end of the day, all you gotta do is simple: keep showing up.