Welcome to Paxgiving 2021

Welcome to Paxgiving 2021

QIC: Wobegon

Gentlemen, welcome to Pax Giving.

It’s really simple: For the month of November, I’m challenging everyone to put their gratitude for F3 into action. I hope you will:

1. Reach out to guys who you have not seen in a while, invite them to come out, or just check-in. If it’s your thing, EH some FNGs.
2. Increase your posting. Maybe add in one more a week or visit an AO you have not been to in a while (or ever.)
3. If you are in town, post at the Pax Giving Convergence at 7am on Saturday, 11/27 at Hanes Park. We’ll have a canned food drive set-up, so bring something (no, not the outdated can of beef broth in the back of the cabinet), as well as a friend, a lapsed Pax, your 2.0s, or that uncle who is in town for the holiday weekend.

Why? I’m grateful for this group, in ways I didn’t expect when I posted at that first Urban Assault workout, forced by Hop to finally come and see this crazy thing he had kept telling me about. I think many of you are as well. 

While I know we have had a small number of pax intentionally walk away from F3, my impression is most of the guys we have lost just kind of faded away. In the excellent and hilarious supernatural book Good Omens, the authors refer to their antagonist, an actual hellish demon, as “An Angel who did not so much fall as saunter vaguely downwards.” That line has stuck with me for years. I think it is that way in most things in life…we often don’t so much dramatically fail or fall, we just kind of…saunter vaguely in a less righteous direction.

So, this month as we rocket towards the holidays, the colder months, and, incredulously, THE YEAR 2022, I hope we can all take a moment and reach out to the “whatever happened to” and the “wonder why I never see” guys. Again, if you are inclined to proselytize on behalf of our little cult, invite some new guys. Not all of us are, and that is fine.

I encourage you to share your efforts, who you have reached out to, what you have heard, where you are posting, on Slack on the General channel, and on Twitter, if you still use it (*cough Perry Bros *cough). 

At the end of the month, I’ll confer with our other leadership and determine who seemed to have given the most effort to Pax Giving and I’ll give that stout soul a gift certificate to the F3 store at the Convergence and make a small donation to the charity of their choice. 

Side note: this whole effort started with a much more complex, tiered system of rewards and encouragement but it just made me tired. So, let’s keep it simple.

Again, why? 

• You can look at it virtuously: reach out your benevolent hand to that wayward dude. What a HIM you are.

• You can look at it selfishly: your workout experience is probably better with a diverse group and more guys. Plus, the lapsed pax is going to be slower than you and you’ll feel tougher.

• You can look at it obediently: our dork of a Nantan asked, humor YHC, OK?

Send that short text or make that phone call–maybe more than once. Give a nudge if you see someone walking out of church, at the bar, at the soccer field. Start collecting canned goods. Post. Be grateful, but let it be an action, not just a feeling.

I’m thankful for all of you. See you in the Gloom.

Your inexplicable and humble Nantan,

-Wobegon