Sometimes people do things not just because of some inhuman drive and ambition. Sometimes they do what they do simply because they can do nothing else. Everything that is Ronnie Coleman is about lifting weights. To tell Coleman not to lift weights is to tell him not to be Coleman. It's almost like telling him not to be Black. It's a blessing in that it enabled him to achieve things few ever will, and it's a curse because, as with everything in life, there's a price to pay.
"But you shouldn't admire it," said the hunger artist.
“But why shouldn’t we admire it?” asked the supervisor.
“Because I had to fast. I can’t do anything else,” said the hunger artist.
“Just look at you,” said the supervisor, “why can’t you do anything else?”
“Because,” said the hunger artist, lifting his head a little and, with his lips pursed as if for a kiss, speaking right into the supervisor’s ear so that he wouldn’t miss anything, “because I couldn’t find a food which I enjoyed. If had found that, believe me, I would not have made a spectacle of myself and would have eaten to my heart’s content, like you and everyone else.”
-- Franz Kafka, A Hunger Artist
