Lowering The Bar

Another dreary indicator that we are in decline was shown to me on the CNN captions the other morning at the bottom of the TV screen. The reporter was in frantic alarm because 100 million people in eastern America were going to be adversely impacted by hot, muggy weather with heat indexes of up to 105 degrees.

For goodness sake's, people in eastern United States have been putting up with muggy summers for 242 years of our country's existence, and somehow they managed to survive without air conditioning, for the most part.

Educators, the nanny state and the media are turning Americans into wimps.

When, in high school at Hoople, North Dakota in 1969, I walked 3 blocks up town to get my candy bar and bottle of soda at lunch out in the middle of a blizzard. The wind chill was -78 degrees below, F.
 At 20, I piled 900 bales in 8 hours in a sweltering hay loft as they came in by conveyor on a 86 degree afternoon.

My brother-in-law, over 30 years ago, went through Ranger Academy in the army. He later reported that he could not believe what individuals could be pushed to achieve, to higher levels that they did not know that they could achieve.

Mavellonialism is all about pushing ourselves to build our strength, power, intelligence, artistry and endurance to higher and higher levels of performance. Mavellonials requres eager, confident, young heroes with a can-do attitude, not whining as victims and wimpy quitters.

Now, a word of caution. We need to hydrate and be smart in extreme heat. We need to use some sense when pushing ourselves.

Raising the bar should be sensible too. Enforcing high standards is not eqiuvalent to being cold, merciless, cruel or dangerous.