Fish out of Water

I along with almost all others don't really like Ian Thorpe, beyond all others I didn't even like him in the pool at the olympics. But I got to hand it to the guy, his retirement is possibly the most prominent example of the medicine for the times I've scene to date.
The incomprehension inherant or however the fuck it's spelt in the media of his decision was evident with memorial posters, articles on his greatness but amid all the hype the man's actual words shone through to me.
To the effect of 'You swim up and down looking at a black line all day one day you get to the end look up and around you and realise there's more to the world than swimming.' I've scene Jordan interviews where with complete modesty he explained that when he was at his level you really have to push yourself to become better, there's no opponent for you out there to spur you on.
I think they're two very different cases.
I must admit when I first heard Ian Thorpe was thinking of resigning I followed pack mentality - he's never going to be as big doing anything else but swimming. It'll be true, whether he becomes fashion designer or celebrity chef or brings out his own signature birkenstock he is famous for one reason, his ability to swim various lengths of water faster than anyone has previously. An activity so valuable to society he has become a millionaire from it.
But such mentallity runs contrary to what I believe we are alive for, if the purpose is enjoying life then Thorpe has made the exact right decision.
See economic theory holds this up to be true: If you can earn more money you take that course of action. Based on the assumption that material goods can satisfy wants and needs. Put simply the gap between yourself presently and your ideal state is a matter of purchasing things and as such you will pursue more money endlessly.
But it's patently untrue, otherwise every woman I know would be working in porno for the easy dosh. Patently some job's suck. Thorpe is not a robot designed to mindlessly swim laps of a pool and he's decided to forgo a few more million dollars to spend his time just enjoying life.
The way things are we have a vested interest in describing such downshifting as crazy, incomprehensible we simply shut out the message Thorpe is sending us, ignoring it completely. We assume 'The pressures too much' or 'he doesn't have the energy' or 'he's losing his form' and not 'he doesn't fucking enjoy it'
I made a friend of the new training manager at work, bubbly guy which is annoying but smart, suspiciously smart I wonder what he's doing working for us. He told me an economic nobel prize winning model based on a story of a couple that had reunited after some years apart and found they had grown apart and struggled with conversation and stuff. They where at the husband's mothers place and someone suggested they could go to Mulharvey or some place for dinner. They all take a non commital stance and defer to each others judgement until they inevitably go to Mulharvey for dinner. Afterwards driving home the mother says to the son 'well are you happy now you've had your dinner in Mulharvey?' the accusatory tone puts him on the backfoot and they eventually start laughing (for reasons unknown to me) when they realise that at no point had anyone actually said they wanted to go to Mulharvey for dinner.
Another example of this all so common mentallity was the aparent Heads of the CIA, FBI and whoever that were advising Nixon on the watergate bugging and burglary. Aparantly each individually had thought that what Nixon proposed was illegal and just plane stupid, however each advisor in turn was afraid to speak up for fear of what action/stance the other would take, they only found out come trial stage that they all thought it was the wrong move, just none had been willing to show their hand before the others did.
With that in mind look at Thorpe's job, he has to swim up and down a pool faster than anyone else. The skill is non transferable, it's not really to be blunt even inspirational. Conditions for competition swimming are so controlled you can't even really see how it would apply in a natural predicament. Thorpe get's paid in sponsorship more than a surgeon or diplomat to swim up and down through a body of water because once every two years or so it packs out some stadiums and gets television coverage. Hundreds of people cheer for him because beating other contries in this event creates national pride even though the performance is individual and there's little commutable achievement. Infact we may even find most other countries care as little about swimming as we care about table tennis.
So Thorpe's literally a tool to help us feel better about ourselves as a paltry insignificant nation of very little character to boast of. And he's said enough, I'm not doing it anymore, I want to paint. Sure we won't pay him as much to do whatever it is he's going to do other than swimming, but if he enjoys that and doesn't enjoy swimming we should respect the decision and think about how we exert most of our energies, following an unspoken script too afraid to break convention and do what we want or fucking just doing what we want with our one chance in existence to do it.

tohm 4 days without junk food.