Don't Forget Your Uppercut

Growing up in the ‘80s or ‘90s, it was a well-known fact that the “start” button paused any and all video games. However, there was one glorious exception to this rule: the uppercut in Punch-Out!

For those who never knew its exhilarations, Punch-Out! was an extremely popular boxing game on NES in which players entered the ring as Little Mac, a pint-sized runt who, through some highly unethical breach of WBA regulations, faced a series of monstrous opponents two or three times his size.

But Little Mac had two advantages: first, his determination to fight and win; and second, the human being controlling him.

Still, once the bell rings and Mac’s first opponent ambles forward, apprehension never fails to kick in. The fact is, the guys you face in this game are huge. Some of them can make mincemeat out of Mac with just a few punches. Mac’s punches, on the other hand, come off as depressingly anemic. Then again, what more could you expect from a guy who has to jump a foot in the air to reach his opponent’s chin? But this little guy is not without his trump card.

Into this daunting situation, Digital Providence has tossed a happy surprise: Mac’s signature move, the spinning uppercut. It takes a lot out of Mac, and is only possible when his confidence is up after scoring a particularly effective shot against an opponent—but when he’s able, Mac spins around, spirals into the air in a dazzling five-foot vertical leap, and drives his little fist straight into the adversary’s unsuspecting face. All this is triggered by pressing the “start” button.

This is quite literally a game-changing punch that has the power to instantly lay out some opponents. And when it’s timed right, this baby is still—in the age of ultra-HD graphics and super-intuitive game engines—still one of the most satisfying moves in all of Video-Gamedom.

So why bring it up now, other than nostalgia?

Sometimes I feel like Little Mac. You know what I mean. Up against huge problems, thinking things like, “I am way out my league here!” or “I shouldn’t even have to deal with this!” or “Why am I boxing with a mutated, 300-pound hippo-man?” Well, okay, only Little Mac has thought that last one, but we’ve all been in the ring with people or problems that seem to vastly outweigh us. And we have felt that primal fear, that deep sense of inadequacy.

It is at these moments that we need to remember the spinning uppercut. There is power, there is greatness, placed within you. Find it and claim it. Don’t be afraid to use it. Never fear greatness, because greatness is your destiny.

And there is nothing more satisfying than feeling that spinning uppercut hit its mark!

 

Confidently,

Joezilla

Bright Lights

I once saw a girl who had a brilliant light shining around her, which followed her wherever she went. I was fascinated and attracted by this light, so I started to follow her.

After a little while, she turned around, looked me in the eye, and said “Why are you following me?”

“Well,” I answered, “you see, there’s this beautifully bright light that’s always shining on you, and I just want to get a better look. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.”

“Really? Then I guess you never realized that you have the same kind of light shining on you.”

I looked down at myself hesitantly, and realized that she was right. I thanked her and turned around. What I saw then surprised me even more.

A crowd of people stood behind me, evidently having followed me around for much of the day. They were all staring at the light, the light that I now knew had been shining down on me all my life. What was odd, though, was that they all had the same kind of light on them—they just didn’t seem to know it.

So I walked toward them and began telling each one of them that the light was shining on them, too. And it was as I did this that I realized I had discovered my life’s purpose.

The Big Race

Once there was a big race.

Three men lined up next to each other on the crowded starting line, excited to begin running.

At the gunshot that signaled the start, the three were off, as fast as bullets. They quickly distanced themselves from the rest of the contestants, as they were among the fastest runners present.

The first man couldn’t help but start thinking while he pounded his way alongside his fellows.
“I saw a girl running back there who looked absolutely beautiful,” he thought. “Perhaps I’m running this race to meet her. I’m not one to fool around with destiny—I’d better slow down so she can catch up.”

This he did, and he met the girl after just a few short minutes of deceleration and detection. She was a slow runner, but he was willing to limit his speed in order to keep pace with her. They had a pleasant conversation through the rest of the race, and when they finished it out they took a handy 12th place.

The second man, too, had seen an enticingly attractive lass at the start of the race. Hoping to meet her in the same manner as the first man, he began to slow down in order to reach the crowd of other runners and search for her. To his surprise, this action was unnecessary, because the very girl he’d spied at the onset of the race then came surging ahead of the pack, soon catching up to the second man, who had already begun slowing down.

It is a pity that he had done this, because the pleasant conversation that ensued could just as easily have been carried out at the vanguard of the race—for these two people happened to be the fastest and ablest runners of all. Neither knew this of the other, though, so they finished together in a mediocre 10th place.

The third man, alone at the front of the pack, didn’t think very much during the race, or at least tried not to. Although an imperfect runner, he knew the secret to success in running, which is also the secret to success in anything else—focus solely on the goal, pouring heart and soul into its achievement. He executed this principle to the best of his ability.

His concentration, too, was flawed and fallible. He fell prey to distraction in the form of a familiar or intriguing face, a memorable piece of scenery, or a peculiar sensation.

But for this, too, he had concocted a counteraction: he had resolved beforehand to remind himself of his goal every time he saw a tree—and this was no rare occurrence, considering that he lived in a temperate inland climate!

So it was that our “little engine that could” puffed his way at the front of the pack, muttering to himself near-constant reminders of his goal, when he spied an odd sight in the road ahead of him, something he had not seen for the entirety of the race—namely, another runner.

This runner happened to be a girl, and happened to be a beautiful girl, at that. Although physically appealing, her beauty lay more deeply in her presence than any particular physical attribute. The mere idea of her, as a romantic might put it, was what attracted this man the most—the mere idea that there was another so focused and driven as to reach his position…and, he suddenly realized, to swiftly overtake him!

With a startled determination, the man redoubled his efforts and surged forward—not to catch up with the girl, but to reach the finish line as quickly and skillfully as possible, devoting all his craft and energy toward that goal. He soon overtook her.

His feminine challenger seemed not disheartened, but somehow inspired by the man’s energetic surge ahead, and thus there began an epic whirlwind of back-and-forth, action against action, as each racer would pull ahead, be superseded by the other, and then regain the lead once more. It was in the middle of this cycle that the finish line was crossed.

The results were indisputable; both racers had crossed the line at the exact same instant. They had tied for first place. Afterward, the two enjoyed a victory celebration of ice cream and milkshakes, which would subsequently be recognized as the first of many dates leading up to a long and happy marriage.

* * *

One might be tempted, like that first man, to say that those two had run the race in order to meet one another. They themselves would testify, however, until the day they died (within the same hour of one another, as it happened), that they each ran that race solely to finish it, and not just to finish it, but to finish it in the best way they knew they were capable of.

An Amateur's Allegory

Imagine for a moment that you have never seen a day. You’ve seen many nights, and have grown up and lived your life under that starred navy, but you’ve never been blinded by light—there just isn’t that much to go around. You were raised to stay in well-lit areas, and to look to light as a guide. Roads and neighborhood paths are lit by lamps, as are the rooms of a house. The light is what keeps you from falling over everything, including yourself.

What kind of life might be lived in these circumstances? You can probably imagine the consequences of avoiding the light: bruises, broken bones, perhaps even a premature death. It is hard, though, to understand the purpose of following the light. In this strange scenario we have imagined, in which the sun has somehow hidden itself from the eyes of man, one wonders: why follow the light at all? We’re doomed to a life of darkness no matter what, so why not throw caution to the wind, and go where we wish, doing what we want, come what may?

Well, allow us to add one more detail to this scenario which answers all of our questions. Suppose that it is possible, if one follows the light throughout the whole dark passage of life, to reach daylight. Can you imagine what it might feel like, after a lifetime of fumbling through the darkest nights in pursuit of faintest lights, to turn the corner one day and see the billowing shades of purple on the horizon? Can you imagine the glory of that first sunrise, as the real source and model of our light rises to a crowning height in the heavens? Here is a reality that you could never have guessed at, but have reached by placing trust in what was told to you: follow the lights! Here, you would realize as you covered your eyes with an eternal sort of satisfaction, is what every one of those lights in my life pointed to. This is that greater reality which I knew, since gazing upon the lights of my youth, existed somewhere, invisible yet present. Even when the lights of the night burned dim and threatened to fade away, I know now that He was watching, He was there, and even then He was guiding me to Him, to here, to now, to this perfect place, beyond anything I could have fathomed.

Indeed, one can find glimmers of truth in the simplest aspects of creation. Remember to follow those lights in your life.