Nearly 2 years had gone by and all of the guys had moved out, all except me and George. Ever the people-connector, he recruited a new member into our fraternity. He embodied the dynamism of Jake, the carefree presence of Brady, the conviction of George, and the passion of Manny. He was big, larger than life, and his name was Goethe.
*****
Thrruump, thrruump, thrruump. The night rain pelts our heads in waves as we jog around the track. Illuminated by the white stadium lights, the dense rain in front of us appears as if sheets of paper sliding down against the moonlit sky.
“Why are you doing this? Do you have something you want to prove?” Goethe asks through shortened breaths.
“Not something I want to prove,” I answer, huffing. “Something I want to improve.”
“Haha-haa. You really are a cool nerd.”
I retreat into my head. I can feel my heart pound against my chest with rage and I can hear my blood cry for vegeance against the man who betrayed me. But I am not in a position to win the battle that he began. The only way to rid myself of these bitter feelings is to build my life up, not attempt to destroy his. My actions must be so loud and oustanding that when word of them reaches his ears, he will be knocked off of his stolen throne. My blood begins to cool as if my thoughts had invited the rain to pour through my body and extinguish the fire in my heart.
I leave my head and enter my body. I can feel my leg muscles ache, but they maintain their rhythm, propelled on their own like the cycling motion of pedals on a bike coasting downhill. Goethe begins to lag behind.
“Goethe, don’t tell me you’re giving up already?” I yell back over my shoulder.
“Haha-haa.” He bolts to my right side on the outside lane of the track. “Yeah right!” he exclaims. “Looks like you just let go of whatever was eating you.”
“I have.” I feel my body growing weary, so I search my mind’s eye for a new source of fuel. I picture the old man jogging in front of me, mocking me with his massive calves.
*****
I feel the warmth of the setting sun on my back as I squat down to lace up my white running shoes. Goethe stretches by the tree. “You should see this old Chinese guy on the track. He’s incredible,” he says.
“Yeah?” I see a shadow cast onto the sidewalk in front of me. I turn my head and look at Goethe askance. Between his dark complexion and the position of the sun behind him, he appears as a silhouette in my peripheral vision. I see him flash his white teeth in a cocky grin. “Bui, you’ll never be able to keep up with me. You’re going to regret the deal we made.”
“Goethe, I’m a man of my word. Any day you work out, I work out. Any night you go out, I go out. And vice versa. But I’m afraid you’ll be the one who can’t keep up with me.”
“Haha-haa.”
We jog to the track in Astoria park. After 2 laps, I see a man in his mid-forties, shirtless and shoeless, jogging on the grass just inside the most inner lane of the track. Goethe jogs up on my right side. “That’s the guy I told you about. He’s a beast.”
“Huh? He’s not even jogging very fast.”
“No, but he was here before us, and he’ll be here after us.” Goethe replies. As if reading my mind, he adds, “He’s sixty-something. But look at those calves!”
…
An hour passes and I begin to feel pangs in my chest. “Let’s go home. I can’t take it anymore.”
“Ok Bui, but tomorrow we’re going to go at it even harder.” As we leave, I see the old man plodding on by.
The following evening after work, Goethe and I jog out to the track again. Sure enough, I see that the old man has already started.
…
…
Over 2 hours pass before my legs begin to give out.
“Goethe! I’m done!” I hear myself yell out.
“Ok!” he yells back. He turns around and stops, waiting for me to make my way toward him. “But tomorrow… we’re going to go at it even harder.” He walks with me as I limp along the track towards the entrance. The old man suddenly appears to my left, passing me by in a slow plod. “Haha-haa!” Goethe laughs at the sight of my dropping jaw.
We take a brief hiatus as my legs are so sore after only 2 days that I have to call a cab to and from work for the rest of the week. But as soon as Goethe sees that I’m bounding around the house the following week, he calls on me to make good on our deal. Every evening, he challenges me to a new exercise, whether it be bear crawls or jumping rope, kickboxing or sprinting on the hill adjacent to the track. We do this at least 4 times per week, putting in about 3 to 4 hours each workout, always beginning and ending with a jog around the track. And every time I think to look for the old man, there he is, always mocking me with his massive calves. That is, until the day he wasn’t, and that was the evening the sky poured rain.
*****
We get home exhausted, but after showering and changing, Goethe immediately begins to prepare white tilapia and rice for dinner. “Dude, you don’t have to cook,” I say.
“Actually, I do.” he replies.
“Why’s that?”
“Because you’re going to need the energy to go out with me to meet some girls.” He smirks. I see the cockiness in his eyes, daring me to renege on our deal.
And so it was that Goethe challenged me to grow, both physically and socially. He taught me how to cook better, how to party harder, and most importantly, how to strengthen my body so that I had the energy to keep at it. He was always very giving, to everyone, yet he hardly ever asked for anything in return. At first, I didn’t know how to thank him other than to do as a tree does when the sun shines upon it, to just appreciate it. In some ways, he was a mentor to me, and it was several months before I could thank him properly by challenging him in return. How did I manage to do that, you ask?
Well, it’s not what you might think. It wasn’t because I was suddenly making more money or dating hotter girls. It was just a single shift in my psychology. Rather than focus on what I could get from people, I focused on my own strengths and what I could give instead. Of course I might still act like self-serving scum from time to time. But I believe that this kind of thinking, of focusing on the value that you can add to people’s lives, is so powerful that the company of wealth and women will naturally follow. The world wants to give you everything that you want–love, camaraderie, joy, vitality, and peace of mind–if you will give to the world first, as Goethe does.
– – – – –
Posts in this series:
Part 1 – Lightning Strikes Thrice
Part 2 – Green Waters Flow Westward
Part 3 – The Immovable Earth
Part 4 – El Fuego Rojo
Part 5 – Darkness is But the Absence of Light
Part 6 – The Traveler
Choose to Take the Journey 
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