Being, Obstacles, and Stories

Dear Wrestling,

I learned about Jose Ortega y Gasset in a dual Religious Studies/Philosophy course called "Who Am I and How Do I Know?"  He was a Spanish philosopher and his answer is, "I am myself and my circumstances." We'll skip the how he knows for now, although it's great and you should read about it.

I am very, very taken with his idea. Basically, humans are stories we tell ourselves specifically when we run into obstacles. And in a way, we don't really exist without those obstacles. On the one hand, there isn't really a time in our lives in which we are totally unopposed or free--even as infants, we get hungry or hurt or frightened, and then we have to deal with that. How we deal with it, our response to an obstacle, is who we are--that moment when consideration coalesces into decision or action--that is who we are. Both the choice, and the story we tell ourselves about it.

As an example. Let's say, happiest of fortunes, that you're Kevin Owens. You have one of the most ridiculously idyllic families in recorded history. You love them with a love like the burning heart of the sun, and you want to provide them with everything they could ever need or want. But. There are obstacles. The opinions of others who have power over your career; other wrestlers nearly as good as you; human limitations like needing to sleep occasionally. Lots of different obstacles that could prevent your plan of giving your family everything.

So what do you do? Do you succumb and settle for less? Do you struggle diligently and take life's knocks and eventually reach your goals? Do you change in the ways that people insist upon in order to gain their acceptance and hopefully employment/cash/championships? Or do you spit and curse and promote yourself and stubbornly live life as you wish and simply outperform everyone you're put up against, and thereby gain the things you want—in the way you want them?

That choice, that program of living is how we, and you, know who you are.

So wrestling. You, dear Wrestling, seem to have at some point in the storied past heard about this theory and said, "Well, I guess we know what the foundation of everything we're ever going to do is, then."  I am new to this, as you know, so I can't say this with utter certainty for every character, but of the ones I know, this is absolutely how they work. Kevin's a good example, but look at Sami Zayn too--if ever there was a character defined by running into brick walls and attempting to overcome them, it's him! John Cena is a fun example, because he starts as an underdog and eventually transitions to the corporate spokesperson we know today.

I don’t actually have a purpose with this one beyond telling you about this great way of thinking about life and how we write ourselves as stories in response to the things that would block us. It's so natural to wrestling, of course I fell for you as soon as I started to understand you!

Love,
Autumn