#78: My Gold Medal Hopes
Happy Friday!
Last week I was invited to join my friend's Ultimate Summer League team. Minutes later, I chucked her Frisbee into the river Thames. I've double-checked and the invite still stands.
Ultimate is the codified sport of throwing a Frisbee around a field. The rules are a cross between American Football and Netball: you score in end zones, but you can't travel with the disc and there's no physical contact allowed.
I'm not sure about the dress-code. I sincerely hope the uniform isn't also a cross between American Football and Netball. Shoulder pads and short skirts are not a good look on me.
Sartorial considerations aside, I'm really pumped about this. I've been casting around (passively) for a team sport to get involved in, and what could be better than spinning disks around a park? (Correct: I have no idea how to spell 'discs'.)
I'm particularly excited because it means I get to spend more time with my new friend, a former World Championship Ultimate player. She's so good that she was on the UCL Elite Sportsperson Programme. I know! Now retired, she spends her time writing for an Ultimate magazine and this summer she's going over to the US to commentate on the European Elite team tour.
Yes, that's right. In the US, games of Frisbee are TELEVISED. In fact, Ultimate is set to become an Olympic sport sometime in the next 10 years. Could this finally be my shot at a gold medal? No.
BIKES!
Celebrate UN World Bicycle Day on 3 June with - what else? - a bike ride!
Start: The Bike Project Workshop, Arches 223–224 Edward Street, SE8 5HD
Date: Sunday 3 June
Time: 11am
Destination: Thames Barrier (close to Charlton station)
Distance: 6 miles
Weather: SUNSHINE!!! (maybe)
Bring: Your bike and some food to share for a little picnic
OUTPUT >>
As you may have noticed, this mailing list is the engine room of my blogging. Here's some you might have missed:
Sunswim (May)
...COMING UP...
One of the most exciting weeks of the year so far:
Champions League final
Two days in a writers room with some very funny people who will help us make Foiled even betterer
ULTIMATE FRISBEE SUMMER LEAGUE BEGINS
Thrilled.
Now On: The Victor Frankl 5-a-day Book Club!
Membership Criteria: Read 5 pages a day of Man's Search for Meaning to complete the whole darn text in only 28 days. I'll be tootling through the text at just 5 pages a week, so you've got plenty of time to catch up.
Day 4, p26-31
Today's pages mark Victor Frankl's transition from naive optimism to the moment he 'struck out' the whole of his former life and started his bare fight for survival from Auschwitz.
Those who had survived the initial cull were stripped of all their belongings and shaved bare with not a hair left on their bodies.
While we were waiting for the shower, our nakedness was brought home to us: we really had nothing now except our bare bodies: all we possessed, literally, was our naked existence'.
This second phase of his adjustment to camp life was characterised by three states of mind: a grim sense of humour, cold curiosity and finally surprise.
Surprise that he didn't catch a cold after standing around outside in the cold, still wet from the showers. Surprise that he could sleep huddled up like sardines, 9 men to a 2m wooden bunk, without pillows. Surprise that, despite not being able to brush his teeth and suffering severe vitamin deficiency, his gums grew healthier than ever.
If someone now asked of us the truth of Dostoevski's statement that flatly defines man as a being who can get used to anything*, we would reply, "Yes, a man can get used to anything, but do not ask us how."
The last passage for today concerns suicide. It doesn't remotely surprise me that the inmates at Auschwitz contemplated suicide. What is slightly surprising - and oddly life-affirming - is that many like Frankl made the firm and positive decision that they would never 'run into the wire'. If only because it simply wasn't worth the hassle!
There was little point in committing suicide, since, for the average inmate, life expectation, calculating objectively and counting all likely chances, was very poor. ... Even the gas chambers lost their horrors for him after the first few days - after all, they spared him the act of committing suicide.
I find that thought comforting: even the most horrific end conceivable can seen as a convenience.
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Share your thoughts by replying to this email, or adding to the comments on my blog. We will continue next week...
* This is from Dostoyevski's The House of the Dead: "Man is a creature who can get used to anything, and I believe that is the very best way of defining him."
Right. I'm off to practice my airbounce inside out flick.
Much love,
- dc
CREDITS
David Charles wrote this. When not writing this, David co-writes BBC Radio sitcom Foiled, does copywriting for The Bike Project and the Elevate Festival, and volunteers for refugee youth club Young Roots. He is almost always available for work. davidcharles.info // @dcisbusy
COMEDY HEROES: Be like Steve Pemberton and support The Bike Project.