“What I do every day is nothing special: I simply stumble around. What I do is not thought out, where I go is unplanned. No matter who tries to leave their mark, the hills and dales are not impressed. Collecting firewood and carrying water. Are prayers that reach the gods.”
Often translated and simplified to: Chop wood. Carry water.
No narrative. No drama. Just simply do the work. Perfecting the practice.
The Bogeyman is a weapon, a story we tell to scare people, particularly children, into compliance.
It’s true. Our fears will never completely go away. But when we flip the lights on, we will see, that the Bogeyman was just a figment of our imagination. Running amuck without a leash.
Sure, it’s possible that your worst fears will come to fruition. But it’s also not likely either.
We fear what we can’t imagine. A world of uncertainty scares us to be compliant. To follow the simple set of instructions for unremarkable outcomes. Or we can embrace the alternative. Shun the Bogeyman.
If you are good at your craft, if you are a professional, it’s expected to be comfortable on stage when the spot light is in your face.
This takes years to perfect. But it isn’t an added bonus to the audience. Either you can perform to your crowd or talk about your work in a way that pleases others or you can’t.
Step by step. Showmanship is part of the presentation we need to make a sale.
The reason we struggle so much to listen to what others have to say is because we think we know better than the person talking to us.
Because we are locked in with of how we see the world around us, we are quick to dismiss narratives that are contrary to the story we tell ourselves.
As a result, we miss opportunities of possibility because we are too afraid of the state of incompetence–not knowing what happens next.
Fear of groundlessness is one of our greatest fears. We want to know the effect after the cause. And since we can’t predict our future, we do our best to make one up. A self-fulfilling prophesy–actions fuel believes that then cause us to react that then reinforce our believes. And on, and on, and on.
My buddy Adam and I left Salt Lake at 10:00 pm Saturday, July 16 without even a definitive plan what we were going to climb.
We settled on Irene’s Arete in GTNP. This is a bit out of my range right now with still easing back into climbing and returning from repeated shoulder injuries. We wanted an adventure and we got one.
We started the trail at 9:15 am Sunday morning in fast and light style (lol). Had a great pace through Garnett Canyon. Lost some time the last couple hundred yards looking for the start. By 2:00 pm (can’t remember exactly) we were off to the races. Adam ended up leading the whole 1,100 feet to keep us going. Super impressive.
The Tetons are definitely warmer than usual. By Pitch 4 we ran out of water. Route finding had its challenges but the last pitch threw us a ringer. We couldn’t locate the last 5.7 pitch and we ended crawling our way through a stout 5.10. We lost all our time we had on that last pitch and now had to descend down Disappointment Peak trail in the dark with no point of reference and vague beta.
Neither one of us have ever been so dehydrated. After getting lost several times, we found a path down with Google Maps that took us to a quick rap to a climbers trail down the lake. Stagnant lake water never tasted so good. Then we had 5 more miles out to the car. We reached the car at 4:30 am Monday morning. 19 hours car to car. A heaven and hell type of adventure. Some of the best quality rock climbing I have ever touched. The aesthetics, exposure, everything was just incredible.
We had two choices to turn around. Right at the beginning and again at Pitch 3. After that, it was the point of no return. You needed to finish. It was tempting to turn around but the thought kept running through my head, “You don’t real know where the limit is until you test yourself.”
The internet has given people a chance to have a microphone. It’s magical moment in time to give a voice to the voiceless. But there is a lot of cruft you have to sort through. Because while everyone has an opinion not everyone is informed.
That gap is causing a greater divide between people more than ever before. As we sort ourselves into people like us, we also create outsiders.
“How can anyone think like that?”
Well, they are not seeing what you are seeing and you are not seeing what they are seeing. The dark patterns of the internet continue and don’t appear to be slowing down. So, let’s be clear…
Our opinions aren’t facts. A quick Google search is available to amplify a story we are already telling ourselves about the world around us. If you haven’t changed your mind on something in a while, how do you know the axiom you started with is the right one?
