Competition turns scarcity of resources or opportunities into skills, action, ideas. It is how life began and how it continues. We compete with our environment, we compete with others, and we compete with ourselves.

In competition, we see the very best of who we are and get a glimpse of what we might be.

Competition shows us where we come from and where we are now. It shows us where we are going and how we will get there. It explains everything from our biology to our technology. It causes our conflicts and brings about their resolutions. We compete physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually in settings mundane and sublime. We compete to survive, to smile, to flex, to build, to grow, and even to die.

Competition gives us meaning, identity, diversion, and discipline.

Such a definition of what it means to compete could fill museums. The intent of these field notes is to make a start of that project — as a testament to us, to life.