A Letter For Kirk Cousins & Josh McCown

Trust is our oxygen

First of all - just watch this video, the whole thing. It’s an outpouring of gratitude amongst men. If you watch this whole thing and it doesn’t leave you feeling grateful yourself, you have some reflecting to do.

What stood out to me was one interaction though, it went like this:

“Just trust him, the whole journey”

“Trust is our oxygen”

“That’s right, it’s the only thing we got”

This exchange has stuck in my head for a full week since I saw the video after the Vikings v Falcons game.

It’s Kirk Cousins and Josh McCown, the Vikings’ Quarterbacks coach and must have had an interaction about this 12+ years ago when Kirk was a rookie.

They are both religious Christian men and the “him” they are talking about is the Christian god they worship.

I think that’s great, but I’d like to break it down further and more secularly and then explain why I appreciate and love this exchange so much.

You could replace the “just trust him” with “just trust it” or “just trust the process” or “just believe to the level of trust”

It’s something I’m still learning even though people older and wiser than me have been preaching this concept to me for many years. It’s certainly one of the hardest things to learn and fully embrace.

If you can get to the level of trust these men have and are talking about, it cn transform you. It’s a belief and trust on a spiritual level.

It’s why they describe the trust as “Oxygen” and that it’s “ours”. It’s abundant around us. We breathe it in without thought. It allows us to be alive. It can’t be seen or tasted or really observed with our typical human senses, the oxygen in the air we breathe is just there. Present. Available to be used to provide for and support life. It’s also needed at all times, without the oxygen we die.

Then Coach McCown ends the exchange with

“That’s right, it’s the only thing we’ve got”

Once your trust is on a spiritual level it’s the only thing - nothing else really matters other than being present and free.

In a way this kind of spiritual trust is the prerequisite to life. Real life, where living is done, where experiencing is done, where love is alive and permeable.

I don’t think it has to be religious at all - you could have the same spiritual trust in “the fabric of humanity” or in the teachings of the Buddha or in the concept of the multiverse and that we are all living in a simulation.

These things might have different end goals or end outputs, if you trust them spiritually you probably will get close to the outputs. Even greater is when a lot of people also have the same level of trust and share and experience it together.

It seems most of those goals/outputs have to do with life itself, enjoying it and feeling happiness and joy. Having an understanding of how beautiful and important and special life itself is.

And I can subscribe to that.

Thanks Kirk and Josh for your beautiful exchange and the brotherhood you still share, who knew that a mic would pick it up and we’d get to experience the exchange with you - it certainly meant something to me. It’s made me think deeper about how I can get to that level of spiritual trust and conviction.

With love and deep appreciation,

-Andrew