I do CrossFit.
How’s that for an opening line!
Anyone who knows me knows of my relationship with CrossFit. It is a lifetime commitment best described as a love affair with happiness and purpose. In a time when my life had all but imploded CrossFit gave me structure.
What I loved most about CrossFit then, and still do now, is its team-like atmosphere. I often say there are no assholes in a CrossFit Gym. I say it because with very few exceptions in the thirteen plus years I have been a CrossFitter, I have not met too many of them in the gym, and the ones that I have do not last.
All for one and one for all. Each one teach one. It takes a village. Step into the arena. Everyone has their own gold medal level. Try new things. Play. Eat well. Move your body.
I could go on and on.
Along with the working out, the message in CrossFit, at least the one I get, is that taking care of all aspects of yourself is imperative to true health and happiness. Oh! Here is another one, you are only as strong as your weakest link.
Mind Body Spirit. Knowledge, Food and Movement, Higher Power. Regardless of your belief system, all three elements of well-being are ‘trained’ in CrossFit. Cross-body movement, proprioception, balance, thinking and executing. Then there is tenacity physical toughness, breathing hard, maintaining focus. Then self-talk, positive “I can do this” self-talk, manifesting the belief that you have it in you to complete the work set before you.
CrossFit.
I know, I know, there are several other workout regimens and gyms and organizations that do the very same thing. Just like there are many ways to learn how to read and different styles of education for children. There are diets for all manner of food preference, vegan or paleo, there are medications and doctors, health coaches and naturopaths available for us to find our way to physical health, and then the vast array of religions to show us a God we can see and perhaps believe in or science to show us what is right here to see.
So why the hero title here? Let’s get to it.
The dictionary defines a hero as a mythological or legendary figure, often of divine descent, endowed with great strength or ability, an illustrious warrior, a person admired for achievements and noble qualities and one who shows great courage. At one time it was a male descriptor, women were called heroines. In the current world where gender is being modified rather than the judgements placed on its unique qualities and differences, both men and women are now called heroes.
CrossFit has this thing, a form of workouts that honor those who have done heroic things and while most of them are named for male heroes, the number of women who have also done heroic things is being more widely recognized. Most of the “hero workouts” done in CrossFit recognize and honor those who gave their life for their country, died in the line of duty, putting the safety and well being of others ahead of their own. They are all worthy and deserving of a hero workout.
And here is the rub. How do we decide what behaviors and actions constitute hero behavior. Who decides yay or nay in a hero workout? What if one’s heroic behavior was done in private so no one knows of it? What about those every day heros?
It is the last week of May and like Americans nation wide we are “celebrating’ Memorial Day. I feel that the term recognizing or honoring would be a better iteration of how the day is handled but who am I to judge. We celebrate the freedoms we have due to the sacrifice of those who died fighting for us to have them.
Memorial Day was originally called “Decoration Day” and was established shortly after the civil war. It was a day to decorate the graves of those who died in that deadly war. It only became an official federal holiday, Memorial Day, in 1971. It is actually supposed to be celebrated on May 30th, but that whole three day weekend beginning of summer thing has it being celebrated officially on the last Monday in May.
I have several people in my life I could classify as heroes. None of them died in battle for me. Their names are not on a wall or in a government building. May of them have no idea I feel this way about them, that their actions were heroic.
Most of them are quite humble.
And here it is. The quality that stands out to me in those men and women who are described as heroes. Their humility. Not one of them appears to have stood at the moment of reckoning and thought, I am going to take a bullet so people will think I am a hero. Not one of them thought, if I go into this burning building I will get a middle school named after me.
At the time a heroic act is executed, there is no choice, it is simply the right thing to do. Likely there is not a lot of time to ponder the outcomes other than wanting it to be right. A spur of the moment decision, unless of course it isn’t. Sometimes those who die heroes know that they will likely suffer or die and they do it anyway.
As I finish this missive it is May 27, 2025. Friday is May 30th. The original Decoration Day, or Memorial Day will arrive on Friday this year. My grief over Molly, and my CrossFit gym’s yearly inclusion of the MollyWOD every May since 2017 has me pondering heroes.
I know Molly was a hero to many young children (her peers) who felt seen and saved by her. I know that several people in my life are heroes, and that often times these folks are invisible to others. Their actions not fitting the definition enough to constitute heroism.
Memorial Day is and should be about honoring those who died for others in battle. It is also a good time to sit (in your now summer ready yard) and ponder that word.
Hero.
Who are they in your life?
How do you honor and celebrate them and what they have done for you or those you love.
It will be June in less than a week. My now annual sigh of relief, having survived another May without Molly.
It is also a time to reflect on those (to us) heroic actions that have helped us or others. Those Kintsugi Heroes. The ones who take the broken and make it beautiful.
They’re out there!
Happy Summer everyone!