Community is...

Climbing is a community

We gather at cliff faces and aeries.  

We are held together by our strive to elevate.  

We speak our own language, a mixture of french, german, swiss, english and even numbers.  

We talk about Gri-Gri's, 5.10's, belay's, pursik knots and double bowlines.

We value physical grace, power and endurance.

We look for places to climb, be it indoor or outdoor.  Urban or wild.

But, are a community divided.

There are elitists, free climbers, boulderer's, mountaineers and gym climbers.

Often times to be one is to shun the others, but we are all climbers.

I am my community. 

I to wish to reach for the next ledge.  

The members of my community accept me and push me to be better.  

I challenge them as they do me.

We share a love of adrenaline and a fear of gravity.

We are a community.

What does my wallet say about me?

In completing this assignment I tried to view my wallet as a stranger would.  What would they think of me?

The first thing I'm going to look at is any identification in this strangers wallet.  Oh, there are several different id cards.  A Washington State Driver's License, a work badge, and expired military ID card.  What can I tell about this person, aside from his devilish good looks?  Well, oddly, he seems to only own blue shirts.  Why is he wearing a blue shirt in every photo?  That seems weird.  

Moving on... well, he has several unfinished punch cards for various restaurants.  As I looked these up online he seems to have a penchant for eating at crappy hole in the wall places. 

He must enjoy the outdoors as he has an REI card that looks well used and about 40 years old.  There is a well worn library card for sno-isle libraries so maybe he enjoys reading.  

Also, and this seemed buried and forgotten in the wallet, a business card for something called Northwest Underground Explorations.  A brief google search revealed that this is some sort of historical mining club in Washington.

I now went back and looked at what I had missed about myself.

First and foremost, I do own more then one shirt.  I hadn't realized before that all my id card photos were similar.  Perhaps for my next driver's license photo I will find something else to wear.

I do enjoy eating out at restaurants off the beaten path.  Several of these places have long gone out of business and I guess that shows that I am a bit lazy in cleaning out my wallet.  

I am an avid outdoor enthusiast and was surprised to see this archaic REI card.  I haven't used it in years, instead relying on my memory of the number.  Perhaps I will frame it.

Most surprising in my wallet was the Northwest Underground Explorations business card.  I have no idea how I got that or who it came from.  I have never had an interest in mining (other then perhaps a desire to explore the odd mine shaft while out hiking).  Very odd.

What my wallet doesn't say about me is my close connections to my family and friends.  I have very little in my wallet, and no personal photos or anything else of the sort.  

Up and Coming

Well, I have been hesitant to take this class for some time.  My drive to do well at things often causes me to focus to closely on one thing, while ignoring other things.  The work load will be a challenge for me as I am currently balancing full time work, part time college, a 6 month old baby boy and even a Mt. Rainer expedition just after finals.  

I hope I can fit it all in.