Daily blog #30

Food means family

Yesterday after my sixteenth training session for the week I indulged in the best sandwich in the world (sandwiches actually =P) at TKB (The Kids Business) in Indio, California not ten minutes from my academy. On my way there, my friend and I were joking that eating good food would be our primary sport if it were not for Jiu Jitsu. I took it a step further by saying that I sometimes contemplate if I’m doing the right thing by living a life of health or if I’m missing out by not ballooning up to 400 lbs. Joking aside, food does seem to be my drug of choice, however it got me thinking that its not just food on its own. Why do I believe this? Because the food on it’s own is great but it’s nothing compared to the experience of company and laughs shared with friends and family.

In Daniel Coyle’s book Culture Code, a study on the world’s most successful organizations, he references the Navy Seals as a unit who develops a bond through shared suffering. When you work hard together and share meals, you develop a family bond that is seen in the military, in law enforcement, in sports and Martial Arts. Many organizations achieve this but it’s uniquely the ones that involve physical suffering that are in a league of their own for primordial reasons I can’t articulate. I don’t think there’s a person who can say that enjoying an In n Out burger after a tournament, especially one that you won, with friends sounds like a bad time. Yet for many this experience ends after the high school/collegiate days of sport. Unless of course you are a Jiu Jitsu addict who can experience this at 67 years of age like my pops. I’ll bet that an indulgent meal and desert with your wife of 44 years tastes a lot better after some physical exertion with your friends and family.