Various thoughts

On Writing

I have not written in a while. I had thought if I did not write for a long time I would have a lot to say, that I would be flooding in thoughts and lines will flow out. But that doesn't happen.

I am flooding with thoughts, but lines are not flowing out. Thoughts are bumping into each other, honking: blocking all the flow and kicking up a ruckus.

On Inhibitions Or On Bouldering

Children remain my favourite people, 8 - 15 my favourite age group. 

I go to this indoor rock climbing gym. For those who may not be familiar with such a setting: in an indoor rock climbing gym, there are tall walls of different slants and angles, on which creative and experienced climbers set interesting routes as challenges for the patrons. Each of these challenge routes is then color coded using tapes and assigned a difficulty level. All this is a system to encourage learning to use the body in specific ways and it is a lot of fun.

People like me, older and too serious about what they do, do not like to break rules or "cheat" - step on a "hold" that is not on the "route". And that is why with my limited abilities the toughest routes I have ever finishes is V4.

At my stage of learning a break of a few weeks, and I need to build up my muscle, body positioning, memory, and confidence from V0 up. On one such day, I was making progress and doing my first V2 in quite some time. When I take a break I watch others do the same route, appreciating how scary it all looks from the non-climber's perspective, and feeling great about the feats my body is now capable of.


 

Enter a bustling 12 year old girl with a shock of bleached white hair, and a surprising outfit.

There are many children in this gym who are much better than me at climbing or I would be even if I was given six more years - and one such person is a six year old. Since there are children who are much better than me I have learnt to sit and watch and learn when I see children climb.

But this girl was not doing it right. She was not following any route or even difficulty level. All the routes on this wall were V2 and above and she just came in and did many moves which took her some way up, and she would climb down. And then she would do another set of moves up and climb down. At one point she got stuck and was unable to move up or down. She asked over her shoulder "what should I do?"

Being the only person around, I jumped in and gave some pointers on an easy climb down.

When she was down and safe, I asked her if she had climbed before. She said that she has been climbing for many years on and off, but never in a gym. So she does not know or recognize the color codes. I explained the system of color codes to her. Then I shower and helped her on her first V0 climb in the gym. She was good at it.

She looked happy and satisfied, and then she went straight on doing what she was doing before: no codes, no routes, no rules!

On my first day in the gym I had figured out what these codes are and since then I have been a straight arrow. I have never done what this girl was doing, ever! And I often credit myself with being the adventurous type.

I am inspired to spend a lot of time in the gym doing non-routes and having random fun!

On Signage and Informal Advertisement

Santa Cruz likes to think of itself as a very organic city. There is quite a lot of informality in the small spots in the middle of all the observed rules that is USA. 

There are many yard sales and other informal events that people want to share the news of. Usually they put up a cardboard with a sign. For example, "Yard Sale, 121 California St., Sat and Sun all day".

Now more than once I have showed up to places and events only to discover that there was nothing going on. Helpful neighbors told me the sale was a month ago perhaps. 

Ideally people who go around posting signs, would also go around removing them with the same diligence in the interest of the city and its beauty. But that maybe asking too much of mere humans. So how about when one posts something in the way of an advert, specify dates with month of the event, so that more people can trust the advert. I, for one, have decided to not pay any attention to such signs that do not have such details, learning from bad experiences.