A few notes on climbing

The sport of rock climbing requires your attention in a way unequalled in most other sports. It’s not just that if your attention wanders while you are climbing the results will be instantaneous (and they will). It’s the exceedingly intimate nature of the climber’s relationship with her belayer. A climber’s life very literally, and very immediately, depends on the willingness of the belayer to pay the proper heed. In a time of parsed attention and multi-tasking that diverts our gaze, climbing requires that the parties genuinely and with full concentration look at, really see, each other’s gear. In a time of clouded intentions and embarrassment about authenticity, belayers must confess that they care whether their climber lives or dies. In a time when baring our souls, investing our energy in what we really believe, has fallen victim to increasing partisanship and posturing, climbing is our primal relationship made real: our lives depend on one another.