We Do This to Survive
Thoughts while looking up at the sky and ground
The Majestic Soaring of a Bird
I was out doing my training run the other day (to avoid getting my butt handed to me in a Spartan Beast) and looked up to see a hawk circling in the distance.
I’d always wanted to fly. I’ve had many dreams where I can either lightly hop good distances, or float gently through the air. But I’m a terrestrial primate, who can plod along on the ground and do some basic climbing. I’m not built to fly.
But this bird was built for what she was doing; soaring effortlessly, riding up thermals, a feathered silhouette against a blue sky.
She was beautiful as any dark angel, but I thought a bit about why she was doing this flying.
Hawks, and most birds of prey, have excellent vision. They also have razor sharp talons and glorious wingspans to power themselves up into the air.
All of this is to survive. Birds of prey soar around, looking for their next meal. If they didn’t find food by seeking a high vantage point, spotting things with their excellent vision, and diving down, to grasp with their menacing talons, they wouldn’t do those things.
I had to remind myself as I plunked along: We do this to survive.
The Tireless Movement of Feet
Humans are movers. We have created a sedentary modern world for ourselves, but our bodies weren’t built for this brave new world. We’re descended from creatures that spent much of their lives hungry, trotting, hunkering, or crawling over the Earth in search of food.
We don’t have the glamor of a soaring hawk in our ancestry, but we do have the nervous energy of our mammalian and primate ancestors in our blood.
I spent most of my childhood being sedentary. Movement was concentrated with fine motor movements to move video game characters and move numbers and letters on pages for school.
After school I found solace in being able to move my body. I felt a connection with the unbroken chain of ancestors who were movers. They might not have done much more than survive and create more movers, but by moving, they survived.
As I plod along to train for a race I have coming up, my body will protest (“why aren’t we on the couch with a bag of Cheetos?”).
I’m training for a race, because I know if I don’t train, but still do the race, I’ll get my ass kicked. I’m not just doing this to survive the calorie flood we’re living through, but to avoid an ass kicking in a few weeks, giving my runs more meaning.
I spot the hawk, and realize while I’ll never be able to soar to survive, I can plod along. I am doing this to survive our calorie rich existence. Every ragged exhale is a vote for who I want to be, as I embody not some chunky dude on a computer, but a hungry warrior moving towards his next meal.
Unless I’m running towards the grocery store, I’m not literally running towards my next meal… but my body doesn’t know the difference.
It only knows that it’s doing work and that it will (hopefully) be rewarded for it. So I don’t do this to survive by hunting food, but do it to survive by making me deserving of the food that’s too easily obtained.
The Swaying of Hips
Later that day I saw my niece walking in a strange way; I hadn’t ever seen her move before. She’s 13, so I wasn’t sure what I was looking at, maybe just the gangly movement of someone moving through puberty. But it was more than that.
I laughed to myself as I realized she was working on sashaying. Her feet were crossing and her hips were moving left and right, in a way that echoed every sort of “look at me” gesture you’ve ever seen from a living creature.
She wasn’t doing it to get my attention or my nephew’s (her cousin) who was also there; she just seemed to be practicing for herself. I don’t know why she was doing it, and I know teenagers well enough to not ask, but it made me think.
My wife talked about how she would practice walking this way from a young age, and how it wasn’t just about the “look at me” aspect. It also made her feel more confident. In a world where women are mistreated, they have to do what they can not just to attract the best mate, but to build themselves up best they can.
They do this to survive.
A woman’s purpose is not something I pretend to know about, but I know that survival is not just about finding meals or feeling strong. It’s also about presenting your best self. That means walking well, dressing well, and overall taking care of how you look, to bring beauty into the world.
Sashaying doesn’t just say “look at me”, it says “I’ve got what it takes, and you better watch out.” I’m not just a bird you can put in a cage, I’m the circling hawk looking for her prey.
Whether we soar, plod or sashay, we move to survive.
