The combination of these 4 words may be the saddest perspective on life. It may also be a wake up call, depending on how you look at situations. Inspiration for achieving one’s full potential even in retirement can be found anywhere. In order to show the connection with a life lived in sports, we have to visit the tribe of the Crow Indians and their chief, Plenty Coups.
Chief Plenty Coups(Crow: Alaxchíia Ahú) is considered as one of the best native American leaders. Plenty Coups was named a chief of the Crow tribe at age 28. As a young man and chief, he was a fierce and well-respected warrior. He was thought to have between 50 and 100 feathers on his coup stick, each one representing an act of valor. Plenty Coups managed to keep the Crows’ original land (although it amounted to only 80% of what they were originally allotted), despite many foreigners’ desire to take the land for gold prospecting and other uses. Many other Native Americans tribes were relocated to reservations on entirely different land than where they had lived their lives. Ultimately he was selected to represent ALL Native American tribes at the dedication ceremony of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in 1921, in Arlington cemetery. You could say that he was the face of Native America just by this fact alone.
History remembers him because through diplomacy, foresight and strong leadership, Plenty Coups was able to preserve the Crow Nation land, people and culture much better than most other Native American tribes, in a time that marked radical changes in the way of life for the tribes.
This is not the time or place to analyze the whole story. I am just taking the aspects that are most important and have a connection to my topic: the life of the athlete.
So, the chief became friends with a white man, Frank Linderman, who wanted to write his biography with all the interesting events and the way of life of the native tribe, in order for the knowledge to be preserved for future generations. Chief was ok with that. Of course you understand that there is a big BUT coming, don’t you?
Plenty Coups was telling everything about his younger days growing up, all the acts he did to gain his feathers, the way of the tribe’s life, the wars, the rituals, the heart and soul in the nation’s everyday life.
But(told you)in his narration Plenty Coups would not speak to Linderman of his life after the Crow had been moved to a reservation. It is like life ended then. And he was still a man in his twenties, with the most important work he had done for his tribe still in front of him. In a way, Linderman wanted to know more about those days of the Chief’s life, the leading ones, the actions he took to preserve his tribe.
No.
Chief said: “I can think back and tell you much more of war and horse-stealing. But when the buffalo went away the hearts of my people fell to the ground, and they could not lift them up again. After this nothing happened”.
The white men had killed all the buffalos(a sacred animal for native tribes) and replaced them with cattle, put the tribes in reservations where they did not have the option to defend their land, hell, there were no more enemies to defend from! Their whole life was based on hunting and being prepared for war, and now, all of it was stripped away from them, it was as if life had lost it’s meaning.
Nothing happened after the buffalo had gone because everything that had defined the Crow subjectivity had ceased to exist.
That is why the Chief ended his autobiography at that point. For us, his most important work was done after that point. For him, nothing mattered after his people were put in reservations.
What a mindset!
With this example I want to point out the feeling many retired athletes have, which is the loss of identity. One identity that has been present from a young age, now ceases to exist and something new has to take its place. It can be as radical as putting your tribe in a reservation, when you were used to having all the land to yourself, to protect it, take care of it and reap its gifts.
All the training, the games, the wins, the getting ready to perform at your best, suddenly dissapear.
What is the next step?
The trap is always to say after this, nothing happened which are 4 words that combined, have a terrifying meaning. It can swallow you whole.
It is true that,like Plenty Coups, maybe nothing will ever hit your heart as hard as your playing days. This is an option that you must discover intrinsicly and then decide to act.
The path ahead must be clear just like the path behind. The past cannot change but it is by the meaning you give to it that you build the present and the future.
What is great to always remember is this: feel gratitude for every moment you lived and then combine everything that shaped you up to today, for the future.
Nothing is over, everything is cumulating. From skills to mindset and mental health.
At some point, a whole world(sports career) will dissappear. Find another world to replace it with instead of crying for the loss.
Be like Plenty Coups. Have your most important treasure , but at the same time work to build your legacy.
The question that Chief Plenty Coups confronted as the leader of the Crow Nation was how to be when all of the means to be had disappeared.
He found a way for his tribe to continue being. Not without some degree of loss of meaning and psychological trauma, but that is always inevitable.
Hope is what motivates us as beings.
Do not get to the point where you actually deep inside you, you believe that after this, nothing happened.
Make something happen!
