Learn And Be
Empty your cup and look for water
I have been thinking about my friend Ed Pope recently, and the trajectory of our friendship. He first contacted me to guide him climbing, and for many years we traveled to do so. We visited places I might never have gone without his influence and others with which I was quite familiar; Bolivia, Norway, Nepal, and Chamonix among others. But ours was far more than a guide-client relationship, Ed’s experience across many domains — judo, Olympic lifting, business, mentoring, and later mountain bike racing — allowed me access to insight and wisdom outside of my own tightly-focused view. Since he passed away, I’ve been making notes, and trying to write of our friendship but it’s still a bit too heavy for me. When I re-read this essay two days ago it made me smile. The terms of a relationship have been flipped a couple of times in my life and each has been immensely powerful and satisfying. For years with Ed I was the teacher, he the student but happenstance and his own curiosity and passion intersected with mine when I was trying to learn to ride a mountain bike and our roles reversed. Ed had been competing in 12- and 24-hour races, and represented the US at the 24-hour World Championships one year. I’d been trying to teach myself, apparently trying too hard, which he made very apparent when he took me out on his local trails. It was quite incredible. When he said, “You have to be at peace in your head before you can relax on the bike,” it rang loud and true in the instant and context, and after I sat with it for a while, I realized it was a universal truth as well.
