During high school, on an afternoon walk along the beach, my buddy told me, “Yesterday, I got pinned under my weights.”
“What?” I asked, trying to understand the physicality.
“During my bench press reps. I got pinned.”
“What did you do?”
“I realized,” he said, “that I’ll never be Conan the Barbarian.”
I’ve thought about his story many times over the years. He said it with such sincerity, and, as far as epiphanies go, his was a vital one.