Digging For Freedom

I'm not one for too much political commentary here on the lifestyle-cum-triathlon blog, but sometimes I just can't help myself. And one of those times is apparently right now. Fasten your seatbelt please.

I was listening to the always entertaining CNN radio and heard some political commentator talking about how Bush is committed to winning the war in Iraq. They were saying, in much nicer words, how he clearly must have his head up his ass to not clearly see or hear the reality of the situation. By committing an extra twenty-something thousand troops to the battle, it means he is focused on staying in the Iraq war until the very end.

When I heard those words "until the very end" that seemed to strike me as peculiar. When is the end? I thought to myself. Will somebody please tell me when the madness is supposed to end?

As I continued down the path of "until the very end," I was immediately reminded of a wonderful quote that seemed to make sense of it all. I'd like to share that quote with you. In fact, I'd like to share that quote with our fearless president...

You've hit the bottom when you decide to stop digging.

Think about that one for a second.
[one mississippi. two mississippi.]

Now read it again and ponder once more.....

You've hit the bottom when you decide to stop digging.

OK, got it?

You see, what this all means to me is that the increasingly terrible war is over when we decide to stop making it worse. We've hit the bottom and we keep digging out another bottom. And digging and digging. And all the digging we do keeps putting us in a bigger and bigger hole. And now it's just gotten plain ridiculous. Too many people are dying for reasons that are unknown to me. We shouldn't even be in that damn country in the first place!

Of course, as it turns out, the more I started thinking about this digging concept the more I realized this fine little analogy fits in with sports after all. Especially in the world of long-distance triathlon. How quaint.

You see, in such sporting events its the power of the mind over the body. When your mind is telling you how tired you are and how you can't possibly go on.. remember this quote. Say it to yourself.

You've hit the bottom when you decide to stop digging.

Then, once you've said that (out loud, if possible), make the decision to stop digging. Turn that frown upside down, buckaroo. Make the decision to enjoy yourself, to experience the tiredness and have it be a good experience. Smile and congratulate others. Be nice and gracious and suddenly you may realize that you are no longer at the bottom of the hole.

You've stopped digging.
Now if you could only figure out how to get us the hell out of this Iraqi nightmare, that would be helpful too.