Rust

I believe I wrote this originally in 2010 and revisited it a few times over the years to add or subtract or edit as my writing skills improved. Its most recent appearance was on page 149 of the first edition of POISON, which could make this the final version. Certainly, the next-to-last sentence is one of the heaviest I have ever written.

Jonny Blitz on top of Liberty Bell in the North Cascades

Every now and then I stumble across an old song by Anne Clark that reminds me of a 1992 or 1993 visit to Barry Blanchard. He had a ‘note to self’ pinned to the wall in his office that read:

“Turn ideas into motions before mechanisms rust.”

I believe that the first time I saw it I decided on the motto, “Get it done now because you aren’t going to live forever.” I realized then that shit would start to fall apart sooner or later and I didn’t want to look back and wish I’d done something I had thought of but didn’t have the courage or will to try.

Well, at a certain age if you haven't done it you are not going to do it. You will settle for less. Because you have to. The path of opportunity narrows as capability wanes. I don't wish I had done more. I've accomplished plenty. And passed along much of what I have I learned. What I wish is that I had appreciated what I did at the time of the doing.

I looked back today and read a journal about how paragliding came to the US and that I and my crew were instrumental in its development here. It was all a lark for me, a sub-activity of climbing, something we thought could make descents off mountaintops easier, ultimately allowing for bigger and bigger objectives. It didn't work out that way because you couldn't count on the easy, airborne descent so we dropped the whole idea and stuck to what kept us on the ground and certain - as much as one could be certain in the mountains.

Reading those words sparked memories of men and events I had not thought about for years despite the fact that they shaped me and my path.

The tenuous link between those pioneering paraglider flights and what might be done in the gym or within any physical discipline is simple: each is or can be a means of breaking physical and psychological barriers, of opening a gate to greater opportunity. When you do things you never thought you could do (in a controlled situation) it should open your eyes to what you might be able to do in the real world.

I've said it many times now but I'll repeat it: the lifting and sprinting and breathing—the practice—is the easy part. Applying the lessons you learn under that stress or by coming out the other side of it to life outside of the training space or the sport is all that gives the training value. I say fuck training for the purely and merely physical. I say, "Hell, yeah!" if training opens doors to opportunities you never believed you had access to before you hoisted that weight.

At my old gym project we posted videos of people doing the lifting even though I didn't think it was the most important aspect of training because those videos could motivate or educate. Someday, I may be able to document and communicate the transformation caused by the work, which is difficult to know, and even harder to show. In the end, the growth fostered by overcoming the challenges we voluntarily impose on ourselves is what matters and remains.

Looking back from that point, the worst question you could ask yourself is, "What if?" The saddest words you could speak are, "If only …" because if you can think it and you are and have been truly honest then you can probably do it. So seize whatever opportunity comes your way because there will be nothing worse than knowing you could have but didn't and now you can't but you're still alive to wish you had.

And that circles back to my motto, "Get it done now because you aren't going to live forever."

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Read the old paragliding article here.