Are you fit enough to save a life?

Liver King is always asking rhetorical questions to invoke inward consideration and reflection. My favorite is when he asks, “What kind of man are you if you can’t carry your own weight? If you can’t carry someone else’s weight? If you can’t save a life? Someone else’s life? A child’s life? Your own life? You OWN CHILD’S life?

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He always follows this with encouragement to become that man if you’re not. To get into the gym. To train the Barbarian. To BECOME the Barbarian. 

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Well, ladies and gentlemen, I can speak from personal experience that this shit ain’t fucking rhetorical. If not for physical fitness, my family and I would have witnessed a tragedy somewhere in the ballpark of 3-5 drownings yesterday. 

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What had happened was…

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My buddy JB, who is a certified beast of a man, and I were at the beach with our families, enjoying sun, sand, and fishing. I was chilling on the beach, drink in hand, and as I looked out into the water, I saw 4 noggins and the top half of a fishing pole drifting away from the beach. I jumped in as fast as I could to sort this crazy shit out. I ended up pulling a 5 year old girl from the water and between JB and me, we pulled 2 full-grown men out after that. All were ok after getting their wits about them, and all’s well that ends well, but here’s what transpired…

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I could write a Master’s level thesis on rip currents, but I’ll spare you the boredom. What I will tell you is the ocean can be an unforgiving bitch with a grudge, ESPECIALLY if you’re not educated on how these rips work. Anyway… The aforementioned little girl was playing in shallow water, got knocked down in the surf, and dragged out. Her dad, doing what any dad would do, jumped in after her. They both began to struggle. Another grown man, who saw this transpiring, jumped in to help, but quickly started taking on water trying to keep these 2 afloat in the washing machine that was the ocean yesterday. JB was surf fishing in waist deep water as this trio of strugglers started floating past him. He instinctively jumped into the deep water to cut them off. Being strong as an ox on whatever kind of secret sauce oxen are on, JB was able to keep these 3 from sinking until I got there to help. I wrapped the little girl up and fought the rip to bring her to safety before we collectively got the dad and the other would-be hero out of the water. 

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I don’t say this for acknowledgement. I don’t say it for a pat on the back. I say it because if JB and I weren’t in the right place at the right time AND both fit as fuck, these 3 certainly end up having a bad day in Bosnia rather than going home safely, and if we’d jumped in to try to help without that level of fitness, we’re ALL dead. That’s not an exaggeration. 

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So are you the kind of man that can save a life? If not, get to fucking work. Your life, or your child’s life, may depend on it someday. If you need help, email me.