In my twenties I was obsessed with the film Cool Hand Luke. If you’ve never seen the film, it is the story of how a charismatic loser becomes martyred by the prison industrial complex in 1950s Florida. It’s also a black comedy with many laugh-out-loud moments and comedic setpieces. The most famous one being the scene where Luke eats fifty eggs on a dare—the amount chosen by him because it was a good round number. It is one of the greatest displays of the inexplicable whythefuckery that men are capable of.
Everything that Luke does in the film, whether drunkenly cutting the heads off of parking meters or repeatedly escaping a prison camp, either aggrandizes or subverts the tropes of toxic masculinity, and I cannot decide which of these Luke is serving.
He gets his nickname from taking a beating far longer than any reasonable man would, and then repeatedly betting and winning on garbage hands in poker. When asked why bets or fights when he has nothing, he says, “Sometimes nothing’s a pretty cool hand.” Luke is one of the great anti-heroes in the history of cinema. He’s certainly one of the stranger Christ-figures to ever be put on the screen. He is also something of a folk saint in my personal pantheon. He is my St. Jude, patron saint of lost causes, but with the nihilism and a pitch black sense of humor that appeals to me.
So why 10 pull-ups? It seems like a good round number.
But why pull-ups?
Because the sum-total of all of the pull-ups I have ever done is zero. In all of the years of physical fitness tests and strength training for football I was never able to complete even one—even when I was stronger and weighed far less. I am pursuing this goal because Luke would, dammit. Because some goals have to be both pointless and impossible. I have no illusions that I will transform my body enough to complete what is a very difficult challenge for even the fittest people.
But I’m going to try as hard as I can anyway, because what if I do it? Am I prepared to live in a world where I can do the impossible, even the pointless impossible.
I want to find out.
Thank you for joining me on this adventure. Any comments, suggestions, or zesty chicken recipes may be sent to me at:
jeremydnichols@gmail.com
or you can follow me on Twitter:
@jeremydnichols
Guitar Progress: Week 1
I made a video with slightly better production values than last week’s chiaroscuro nightmare. Here is me being worse at guitar after a week of diligent practice.
Enjoy: