Wrestling Blogs - Veryvolunteer Assistant

Dave Eggers I am going to make an allusion to the title[1] of one of your short stories, You are welcome to wear my head gear. I miss cutting weight sometimes. It was a meaningful emptiness, a palpable hunger with a clear origin. You are hungry because you are denying yourself food and you will be satisfied when you eat. I miss this simplicity, the familiar process of denial. Taking in less and doing more. It was horrible then, but once something becomes routine you’re going to miss it when it’s gone.

I always want to try and explain that to the kids when they are huddled on the mat aching for a drink of water. It wouldn’t make any sense to them now. But believe me, you can even miss hunger, and thirst, the ecstasy of wanting. No, they will have to wait and find out for themselves. It’s not the dry mouth you miss it’s the clarity. I know that when I drink this Pedialyte my thirst will be quenched. I am sick, but I have my hands on the antidote. And I am confident it will cure me.

As an adult, it is hard to know what you are aching for. Do you want something? Or are you just in the habit of wanting. Sometimes, I think I just want closure. When can I rest? I have been running and I am not sure there is even a finish line to cross. That is one of the things I loved about wrestling at the end of a hard practice or match you can lay on the mats, in content exhaustion without any guilt Because you gave without counting the cost, toiled without seeking rest, and labored without asking reward[2]. There was something holy about it. Like a mass, it’s a ceremony of faith and sacrifice.

We understand the expectations and rituals of wrestling and I think that is why so many of us end up back in the wrestling room as coaches, or sometimes practice partners, sweating out everything from indecision to alcohol. Being there buys us a little more time to find something we care enough about to forsake food, water and rest . And until we discover whatever that something is there will always be a pang of hunger. Because we are creatures of purpose, I guess its’ like my dude the Buddha once said “Your work is to discover your work and then with all heart give yourself to it.” [1]

The short story I am referring to is entitled “Why We Are Hungry?” It is a great story I suggest everyone reads it. [2] These are more or less lines from St. Ignatius’s Prayer for Generosity.