Ironman Motivation: Is It Really All About Lekking? Read ‘The Last Ape Standing’ If You Can’t Find A Date.

“So, why do I like dicing onions though they hurt my eyes, but I really dislike preparing green beans, whereas I enjoy eating both? What motivates this desire or lack of it when the outcome is equally advantageous, delicious food, and the action superficially similar? Is it really to do with mating behavior?” FitOldDog is wondering! See the bottom of my this post for the answer.

This blogpost was triggered by a conversation that I had yesterday with my sports massage therapist, Tara, about the meaning of life.

Hi folks! Welcome!

FitOldDog (looking very corporate in red) and his Toxicogenomics team back in the late 1990s at the GlaxoWellcome RTP facility, NC, USA. I have Roger to thank for taking me away from the nose and into the fascinating world of large-scale gene expression and hence to network mathematics. It changed the way I thought about Biology, especially Biochemistry, and is now making sense of my Paleo thinking.

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion, not a novel one, that the meaning of life is life itself, and to waste time on anything that does not enhance your life is truly a terrible waste of your life, so choose your thoughts, feelings (can you choose them?) and activities wisely as you fend off entropy by shedding shyness and dancing in the sunbeams of a dying star.

My 70th. birthday party came and went, we all had a great time, and I was left to reflect on what a rich and varied life I enjoy, often surrounded by interesting and challenging people, including attractive, intelligent and challenging women (my BS does not survive), friends, peers, old colleagues and coaches, teenagers, kids and grandkids, and especially people who make me think, including Roger Brown. Roger and I worked together for a number of years on an arcane topic, ‘the interpretation of large-scale gene expression data in the context of Toxicology.’ This guy knows how to think, so when he gave me a book, The Last Ape Standing, by Chip Walter, as a birthday present, I proceeded to read it.

What a great book, all about the evolution of humans over the last few million years, based on work with fossils, bits of rock, DNA sequencing, fertile imaginations and incredible patience, which are revolutionizing our understanding of human evolution. The stuff about Neanderthals, of which we are made up in part (1-4% of our DNA), reminded me of a great book (Not the sequels, sorry; wish the author had stopped there!), The Clan of the Cave Bear, by Jean Auel.

I love it when a book changes the way I think or feel about an issue – a book that causes me to grow as a person. Such works encourage people to redraw their road maps of the World, bringing them infinitesimally closer to reality. Yet another step down the road to enlightenment?

Nick, effectively my stepson, who gave a great talk at the Duke Writer’s Camp recently. Nick is the kid I wanted to be when I was 15 years old, always surrounded by friends, including lots of girls. I suspect that his skills with poetry, music, dance, humor, sports AND academics all account for this attraction. I certainly admire this guy, and I wish I’d had him as a mentor when I was a nerdy shy kid studying pond water for fun in my teens. Photo by Jess aka Pippa

For instance, The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins helped me to finally make sense of speciation (formation of separate species from a common stock). And this book, The Last Ape Standing, is making sense of the Ironman, and all the problems I had getting a date as a teenager and again in my 50s. It also introduced me to a new word, Lekking, the work undertaken to attract a mate and make more of whatever creature you happen to be, which to some degree is about power. In the case of humans this very much means brain power.

There is an interesting section on mating dances and performances directed towards obtaining and maintaining high status in a group, be you possum or primate. I liked this quote particularly:

“…women are attracted to men who make them laugh, while men are attracted to women who find their jokes funny.“

I can’t stand preparing green beans, which lead me to consider, once again, the interesting and mysterious topic of motivation, about which you can never be completely sure.

It would appear that many human artistic endeavors may well be the consequence of lekking, including the arts, such as music, dance, painting, and the like. This all makes me wonder about the Ironman as a lekking behavior.

I know a financial advisor who has completed multiple Ironman races, and she told me that stating this fact in her marketing materials has most certainly increased her business.

I guess I am doing the same thing with my business, Old Dogs in Training LLC.

Do we undertake endurance training and Ironman races to gain power in a group – probably?

Thoughts?

FitOldDog

PS The answer to the green bean/onion question. I prepared a lot of green beans this morning, and I realized that it wasn’t the act of preparing a bean versus an onion, it was the time per item, about 10 sec/bean and 1.5 min/onion. It takes so long to do beans, whereas an equal volume of onion is ready in a trice. The same goes for harvesting green beans in the garden for that matter. I do think that being a good cook can attract a mate, which may be one reason I have a good one.