I apologize for talking about my epiphanies at the dang rock climbing gym. There is a part of me that explains that nobody cares about insights that I have on the wall.
Unfortunately, there is another part of me that says “Jaybird, you’re not *THAT* special. If it takes you almost 46 years to figure this out, it might take someone else 40ish. Which means that posting this thought might help someone in their early 30’s.”
At which point I start thinking about how much *I* listened to other people when I was in my early 30’s and alternate between “hey, I listened to that one guy! Once!” and “Jeez, Jaybird. Just post something about what people should do if they win the lottery. Again.”
Anyway.
I went to the gym and there was this route on the wall upstairs that was fairly rough for me. I did somewhat okay on it until I got to the last 20% or so at which point it turned into some weird and diabolic route that required that I do the splits and this weird behind the leg thing and hang in such a way that my arms thought that they were doing a pull-up. I failed to complete the route. And then, the next couple of times I went, I tried to climb it but it turned into some weird formation about halfway through. I failed to complete the route.
And then, last Wednesday, I got on the wall and climbed through it like it was the easiest wall in the world. Like it was some simple little wall that they set up specifically for people who have never climbed before and they wanted to put something together to give folks confidence that, yes, even they could climb at the climbing gym. I was tempted to suspect that they added a couple of footholds and one handhold. “Nope! We didn’t touch it!”, the guy behind the counter assured me.
And so I went from “I can’t believe how tricky this is!” to “Did they change this so that it would be easier for fat and bald guys?” in one week.
And now I’m in a place where I can’t wait to go climbing again come Sunday so I can see what else is easier that didn’t used to be.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Image is “Play” by Clare Briggs. Used with permission of the Briggs estate.)
Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com
That thing has happened to me. It’s a good place to be.
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