Recently, the Pax of Peak City have been reading the book Freed to Lead so that we can align around the mission of F3. After finishing the book, Red Ryder asked the pax:
How has this impacted your perspective on F3?
Quitter gave a particularly thoughtful response.
First the easy part. This book clears up a great deal of the fuzziness around all the lingo. When I first joined (or maybe better put as “wandered with heavy suspicion into?”) F3, I had no idea what anyone was saying most of the time. Now, more than a year later, I still mostly don’t know what anyone is talking about, but after reading the book I have a much better understanding of where all this lingo comes from and is much easier to keep formulated in my mind.
Now that I think about it, everywhere I go, I mostly don’t know what people are talking about. Is there a book for that?
I will say that the language component of F3 is a positive for me. A significant part of F3 culture is wrapped in this strange, paramilitary language with a nebulous origin, which brings me to my second observation.
The authors offer a great deal of transparency around the origins of F3. The imagery they used in the book was building a railroad track, 100 yards ahead of the moving train. You could also say, “Building a plane in the air." Whatever metaphor you prefer, the authors are clear that they didn’t know what they were doing, or even what problem they were solving. Sad Clown Syndrome is what the authors call it, but what is it exactly and what causes it? Why is it so much more pronounced today than, say, 30 years ago? It’s not entirely clear why F3 is a (not the) solution to SCS, but it is.
On a side note, a parallel was draw between F3 and Alcoholics Anonymous, and I can understand why. As someone who has spent a good deal of time with other alcoholics I am reminded of the advice I often received. It goes something like this:
The program works, there is no reason to ask why, just do the work and you’ll see the results.
In a similar way, F3 makes no sense. How does exercising in the dark with other men change a persons life? It sounds crazy. But at least for me, it did change me. I landed in Apex 13 months ago, a lonely, unemployed, out of shape dad with high blood pressure. Now I’m still an unemployed dad, but every meaningful relationship I have out side of my family is connected to F3, and for that I am grateful. My doctor is grateful as well.
You’ve heard “necessity is the mother of invention." I might take it a step further and say necessity is the mother of everything. It seems to be the case with F3. I believe the primary reason F3 has flourished so much from its humble beginnings is the tremendous need for it in America’s communities. You needn’t look far to find jaw-dropping statistics around loneliness, meaninglessness, chemical dependency, suicide, obesity and countless other ways of measuring misery. If those sad clowns are anything like me, they don’t even know they have a problem, let alone are open to a solution.
Please EH someone, and if you don’t know what that means, then borrow Freed to Lead from Hobbit since I just gave it to him. I’m not entirely sure why what is outlined in the book works, but it does.
