Training Philosophy, Truth

Pathfinder Crossift is a place where discipline is key, and the most is expected out of an individual. In return, with hard work and determination, great feats and accomplishments are achieved; thus improving the fitness of the individual. Our goal at Pathfinder Crossfit is to prepare ourselves and other future officers for the physical and mental obstacles that we will face while leading soldiers into combat. We do this everyday by enduring momentary physical discomfort throughout our workouts. The hardship that is tolerated is transformed into strong bonds amongst the group. Because of the bonds that are constantly being formed, individuals will risk and suffer more.

How can one sum up motivation? It is a virtue that is in almost every person without their foreknowledge. The word in its self has the root of “motor” or “to move” which incites a certain action from those that posses it’s powerful essence. Why is it even important? Motivation reaches beyond circumstances, realities, difficult physical states, and at times common sense to incite in us, the elite soldiers of tomorrow to press on in excellence. When I think of motivation I think of Jesus Christ, pressing through incredible suffering to die for the world. When I think of motivation, I think of the soldiers at Iwo-Jima, fighting a seemingly invincible enemy that was only sure about one thing, that to die they must first kill 10 of us. When I think of motivation, I think of the soldiers in the Middle East even this very day. Starting off, our concept of war was much different in 2001 than today, and through these challenges, soldiers still re-enlist and face an at times invisible enemy. When I think of motivation, I think of sacrifice.

At Pathfinder CrossFit, we find motivation to be a simple commodity. Those in this group of excelling soldiers understand that to achieve above average fitness, mental agility, and a quickness of movement, we accept every challenge with gratitude. It’s not the bushido masochism of the samurai but rather the deeper desire to live for our country, and be prepared to serve and die for her through living a strong life, not plagued by weakness and excuses. The many challenges that the future officers of Purdue face will come in many incomprehensible forms, and having a disciplined and prepared body, we soldiers will soon salute our NCO’s with a preparedness that was unheard of 100 years ago. The Pathfinders CrossFit ethos motivates us to become better citizens, cadets, and live a level of life that makes all others seem like they are missing something. As we work hard, pursue goals, face physical and mental challenges head on, and pursue superior fitness, our fortitude is evident. Many a day I reflect on the challenges I have faced at Pathfinder CrossFit, and compare them with current struggles only to find hope that I have faced greater challenges. So as we move forward with new innovations, greater strategy in the armed forces, and more superior soldiers and soldiering, we, the members of the Pathfinders CrossFit continue with eagerness to excel, unite, strengthen, establish, and be an inspiration to others to discipline the body, stand firm on convictions, and be radical with fitness as we serve this great country.

By Peter Harris 28JAN2010

Until modern times, humans focused a great deal of the best of our thought upon such rituals of return to the human condition. Seeking enlightenment or the promised land or the way home, a man would go or be forced into the wilderness, measure himself against the Creation, recognize finally his true place within it, and thus be saved both from pride and from despair. Seeing himself as a tiny member of a world he cannot comprehend or master or in any final sense possess, he cannot possibly think of himself as a God. And by the same token, since he shares in, depends upon, and is graced by all of which he is a part, neither can he become a fiend; he cannot descend into the final despair of destructiveness. Returning from the wilderness, he becomes a restorer of order, a preserver. He sees the truth, recognizes his true heir, honors his forebears and his heritage, and gives his blessing to his successors. He embodies the passing of human time, living and dying within the human limits of grief and joy.[1]

As Wendell Berry says, “We forgot, indeed, that the civilized and the domestic continued to depend upon wilderness- that is, upon natural forces within the climate and within the soil that have never in any meaningful sense been controlled or conquered. Modern civilization has been built largely in this forgetfulness.”[2] “Our works do not liberate us… they cut off access to the wilderness of creation where we must go to be reborn- to receive the awareness, at once humbling and exhilarating, grievous and joyful, that we are a part of creation.”[3]

Much of this mistakenness has come about by our misunderstanding of health. The modern definition of health is largely based upon how we feel. We believe we are healthy if we do not feel any pain, and we are strong enough to do our work.[4]

Berry criticizes the modern condition by saying,

Our bodies are fat, weak, joyless, sickly, ugly, the virtual prey of the manufacturers of medicines and cosmetics. Our bodies have become marginal; they are growing useless like our “marginal” land because we have less and less use for them. After the games and idle flourishes of modern youth, we use them only as shipping cartons to transport our brains and our few employable muscles back and forth to work.[5]

For it is clear that no matter how technologically advanced we become, we all eat food and therefore we exist by some form of agriculture. It is the earth which provides this undeniable resource and it is this appreciation for which we have largely lost. The proper definition and place of human beings within the order of creation, finally rests upon our attitude toward our biological existence, the life of the body in this world.[6]

Ash to Ash and Dust to Dust, from the earth our bodies arise and to it they return. While we live our bodies are moving particles of the earth, joined inextricably both to the soil and to the bodies of other living creatures. It is hardly surprising, then, that there should be some profound resemblances between our treatment of our bodies and our treatment of the earth.[7]

The word health is derived from such words as heal, whole, hallow, and holy. Our bodies are not distinct from our souls and neither are they from other bodies, which are “involved in the cycles of feeding and the intricate companionships of ecological systems and of the spirit.”[8]

Therefore it is absurd to divide our health piecemeal.

In order to cure this modern condition and restore our health, we must restore these connections to the creation and to other people, as well as between the body and the soul. We lose our health by failing to see the “direct connections between living and eating, eating and working, working and loving.”[9] This is done through good work which recognizes these connections and appreciates the connections between the earth, the body, the soul and other people. The solution for many modern problems must embrace this idea. For good work “defines us as who we are: not too good to work with our bodies, but too good to work poorly or joylessly or alone.”[10]