For example, last night I watched a group of men whose decisions had led to them being mixed martial arts fighters. A few months ago I didn't know such people existed, but then I stumbled upon The Ultimate Fighter on TV and I was hooked. Whether it's some sort of primal male instinct or just a sick flaw in my psyche that makes me enjoy men kicking the crap out of each other I can't be sure, but whatever it is got me through until 4am last night and I am thankful for it.
But aside from the testosterone, adrenaline and ABH, one thought kept puzzling me: How did all these people end up doing this for a job?
You don't think of fighting for a job, do you? You think of it as something drunk people do over a girl or idiots do over nothing. The idea that you can get paid good money for it is a new one to me.
Of course, there's boxing, there's wrestling and there's the Karate Kid (the original, not the one Will Smith threw up all over) that are all fairly established in our culture already. But MMA is nothing like any of them. MMA is brutal. Only in the past couple of decades have rules been put in place to stop eye gouging, strikes to the groin and hair pulling. There was a time when someone won a fight by pulling the fingernails out of his opponent. But all that had to stop, because it was barbaric and it would have seen the sport banned, so now they have to assault each other in a more moral way.
Was this sort of career path decided on at school? Did their parents push the idea that knocking other people out would be a good way to put bread on the table?
At the start of our lives we are all the same. We're all babies with nothing but potential. How many decisions would I have had to change in order to be, say, this guy:
Maybe deep inside I am already there. Maybe my destiny is and always has been to be the ultimate fighter, I just haven't discovered it yet. Of course there is a chance that I would die if I so much as tried it, but you never know! This might be the future for me!
I'm going to find some shorts, create a fancy nickname and shadow box in my bedroom. I always win at shadow boxing and I can't see how the real sort would be all that more difficult... it's just a massive man, instead of a shadow.
Easy.