Peace With Inches

We all have to fight our way back into the light - we can climb out of hell.  One inch at a time.

As I was out for my walk yesterday, my "Hotel Hazing" mix playlist came on - starting with the Peace With Inches speech, to Firestarter, to Welcome to the Jungle, to Enter Sandman, to Let the Bodies Hit the Floor.  In the climatic series of events in "Any Given Sunday", Al Pacino's coach gives an awesome inspiring speech to his team. You can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQUBq2blgjU and http://www.justsomelyrics.com/910133/Any-Given-Sunday-Peace-With-Inches-Lyrics

Before our Hotel initiation, this was played before breaking into "Firestarter" to kick of a night of hazing. And it was great.  The speech is an inspiration, a memory and a piece of me for many reasons.  I know that all of those guys who did that with me are always there, no matter how long it has been since we have seen or spoke.  The same goes for all the kids who came after us.


That's part of life. But you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out life's this game of inches.

I found myself identifying with it in a new way as I get older.  It isn't about me and my buds getting through freshman year to initiation, it wasn't about getting pumped for a football game, it wasn't about getting amped to do unto others as they did unto us, it wasn't about saying goodbye after graduation to the people who clawed with you, it wasn't about looking back on some great memories with great people.  It was about surrounding myself with people who view life like I do, enjoying the ride with them, being there for them (and them me) and if they don't - then they can "die as individuals."

We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when we add up all those inches, that's gonna make the f#@*ing difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying!

Things were topsy turvy lately - adjustment, 518 nothing to do winter, realizations, reverting back, change, solo single gal.  Everyone has an "off" time in their life, whatever it may be.  It's what you do after you realize you are in your own "hell."  But, every inch forward is a step forward.  We don't sit at home and wallow in our sorrow - we giddy on up and live life.  Live! Live! Live!  It sometimes get darker before it gets lighter, but you claw, and dig for that inch closer and closer to the light.  But, we don't realize that sometimes we find ourselves in that "hell" because the guy next to you - whether it is friends, significant other, family - decides not to claw with you.  He won't go that inch with you. Even though you would do the same for him.  And that is, at times, what digs us deeper and deeper down.  You expect teammates to dig and claw with you.  Then they don't.

And I know if I'm going to have any life anymore, it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch.

They don't believe in fighting with the guy next to him, whomever it may be, to dig back into the light.  But, we refuse to accept people like that in our lives.  Al Pacino would have kicked his sorry ass out of the locker room.  And, we have to decide whether we are going to do the same.  We pick ourselves up, look in the mirror and re-evaluate the teammates in our lives.  Are they worth clawing for?  Are you worth their help?

When we find out that they are either too scared, weak, or lousy to claw with you - we must allow them to dig their own hole and we start clawing ourselves out.   It may be hard.  But, that's a choice we have to make.

We must climb out one inch at a time, and do it with the guy next to you.  If they claw with you.

Now, what are you going to do?  
I'm a firestarter.  Terrific firestarter.