Do we take our legs for granted?

Recently I have started indoor rock climbing more because I joined a new gym.  The type of climbing that I do is called bouldering and does not use ropes, because our feet are never more than about 8-10 ft off the ground.  Bouldering is typically about technique and refining your climbing skills for top roping or lead climbing (climbing heights greater than 10ft with ropes).  When watching new climbers and even when being aware of my own climbing I have started to realize that the difference between us and experienced climbers is that we rely primarily on our arms.  An experienced climber will use their legs for most of their climbing strength and their hands serve to balance them or support them in between foot holds.  I think the reason we rely so much on our hands as novices is that we take for granted the strength that our legs actually have.  We spend all day walking, standing, squatting, running, and climbing stairs (even if we work in an office) so our legs are significantly stronger than our arms.  However, we are probably more conscious of what our arms do because they are not lifting, pulling, or supporting us as often as our legs.  Consequently I think as a beginner climber and even as everyday people we take our legs for granted until there is some problem.

Feeling the plight of the little man

I often give my Canadian cousins a hard time about Canada just because it's fun to see them get irritated.  Truthfully I really enjoy my visits to Canada and I love the cities of Vancouver and Toronto.  However, I often notice during my visits that people (not necessarily my cousins) feel the need to talk up Canada and all it's greatness.  I won't make fun of Canada with people I don't know so these situations usually occur out of the blue.  Similarly on our most recent trip to India there were several occasions when people touted the virtues of India over America.  As with the previous situation in these cases I was likely in full agreement, but people were still very vocal about why India was so good.  Both situations seemed to be cases of a little man's complex where Canadians or Indians (living in India) feel like Americans are in someway overbearing and need to be stood up to.  This is all just my interpretation.  Anyways I have never been in the position of feeling like I need to defend my space against something that is viewed to be 'better' until I realized I live in Oakland.  A friend has friends coming in from San Francisco to hang out in Oakland/Alameda and we were talking about how we feel a bit vindicated and happy when San Franciscans hear about things in the East Bay and come over.  I constantly feel the need to fluff up Oakland's feathers when describing things going on here or places to go to others especially San Franciscans.  I now understand what Canadians or Indians might feel like when they talk up their regions to Americans as I have my own little man's complex with Oakland. 

The Anonymity of Life

Last weekend I went out with the HyWy and some friends to an amazing art exhibition on graffiti with hip hop DJs and random 8 year olds breakdancing.  While I was there it struck me that that moment was exactly why I would never want to be super famous.  I'm not saying I don't want to be successful, but I want to stay out of the spotlight.  Celebrities are always saying how they can't go to the store or the movies without being recognized and I didn't think about how much I would miss anonymity until this random night out.  I enjoy finding new things, doing different things, and having new experiences so I'm not sure whether the trade off would be worth it.  Of course the people that make that trade have found something that they are so incredibly good/passionate at that they are willing to trade anything for it.  On the other hand I have found that thing, but if I was able to successfully do it I would still maintain a completely behind the scenes role.  This is even more in my mind with the entire Tiger Woods debacle.  I don't intend to make any judgment on what he did and whether it was right or wrong, but I can't imagine living his life where he is so recognizable that the only way to have an existence is by sequestering himself.  Of course then there is the bigger shift that comes with this immense change as someone becomes larger than life and that is what stars are always trying to counter by 'staying close to their roots', singing about being 'Jenny from the block', or maintaining that they are 'raw as hell.'  The beauty of anonymity is that in a way it grounds your ego, because you can't ask, 'do you know who I am?'  No one knows and more importantly no one cares who you are when you are anonymous.