In case you haven’t seen the all-time classic film Dodgeball, I will do my best to summarize.

Peter Lafleur is the unmotivated owner of a local small gym called “Average Joe’s.”

He owes money to the government for back taxes, and his competitor, who owns the local “globo gym,” is about to sweep in and take over Lafleur’s business.

He and his misfit friends enter a dodgeball tournament, where they end up winning a ton of cash. A good time is had by all, with life lessons, great one-liners, and Vince Vaughn raising an eyebrow every once in a while (which shows he’s trying to act).

When the cash is delivered, it comes in an old-timey pirate trunk with the phrase “Deus Ex Machina” written on it.

It turns out that the way the film ends wasn’t the original ending.

In the original ending, Average Joe’s loses, and Peter learns the lessons that friends are the most important thing, adversity builds character even if you don’t get what you want, and he’s got to get his shit together and grow up.

Audiences hated it in test screenings.

So the studio made the writer and director change the ending, so that not only does Average Joe’s win in the end, but they end up with a ton of money, because of a bet Peter made.

Not exactly a guy who has learned any lessons.

The writer and director were pissed but had to follow their contracts.

Deus ex Machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence.

If you Google this, you can find tons of movies with unrealistic endings.

Deus ex Machina is a Latin term originally used in ancient plays where a god would appear from the heavens and fix whatever situation the main characters had gotten themselves into, which had no other possible way of being resolved.

I find a lot of similarities between me and Peter Lafleur.

While I’m not an irresponsible person, I do have a current struggle: the closing of a portion of my business, which I’ve built and nurtured for almost 13 years. (For those of you who missed our previous announcements, we will be closing our Mill Valley location in December. The fall youth session will go uninterrupted).

I didn’t bring this change upon myself, but it’s happening nevertheless, and, like Peter, I had to move from being in the decision-making phase (which is the worst place to be) to being in the decision-is-made phase and getting going with the work that needs to be done.

There is one significant difference between Peter’s journey and mine.

There is no Deus ex Machina.

The calvary ain’t coming.

It’s all up to me and Allison to figure this thing out, which we will.

It will be bumpy and emotional, but in the end I know we are doing it for all the right reasons.

We will all encounter situations like the one I just shared, and we will have a couple of choices.

Like Red says in The Shawshank Redemption, we have to “get busy living or get busy dying.”

I hope you all have a great weekend, and I will see you soon at the gym!