Tolstoy doth Climb

Merriam-Webster estimates that there are roughly 1 million English words, although many of them are technical/scientific words that aren’t commonly used.  There are a finite number of words, meaning there isn’t an infinite number of possible word combinations, but for all practically there might as well be!  Despite a practically infinite number of word combinations, we English speakers tend to rely only on a limited few standard expressions to relay our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, questions, and very often, our writing.  There must be hundreds if not thousands of affirming expressions that one could use to encourage a fellow climber, but I would guess that 90% of the time I like many others fall back on “you got this”.  Perhaps it’s laziness, lack of originality, habit, or just a time saving response, but “you got this” dominates the possible word combinations used while at nearly all crags and climbing gyms.

There are some however, who combine words with such force and originality, that it’s nearly impossible to avoid being awestruck.

To understand great writing, Hunter S. Thompson re-typed entire books such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.  He also re-typed works of Faulkner, to try and capture the feeling of beautiful mechanics and the act of virtuoso writing/word combination. 

“You got this” might convey a point, but it’s certainly not masterful!  Hunter S. Thompson surely never would have lowered himself to using that expression.  Could you imagine Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Faulkner climbing together?  I imagine their combined optimistic encouragements would sound more like poetry than a bunch of dirtbags shouting the refrain of new-age religious sect.

After reading Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych, I kind of get what Hunter S. Thompson was trying to pull off.  I’ll never manage the word combinations of someone like Tolstoy, and I won’t bother re-typing the entire book, but one short paragraph might be worth sharing.

 Whether it was morning or evening, Friday or Sunday made no difference, it was all just the same: the gnawing, unmitigated, agonizing pain, never ceasing for an instant, the consciousness of life inexorably waning but not yet extinguished, the approach of that ever-dreaded hateful Death which was the only reality, and always the same falsity.  What were days, weeks, hours in such a case?

“Will you have some tea, sir?”

What a passage!!!  What a way to capture the nature of Existentialism, Philosophy, Life.  It’s so good!  That mundane interruption during one of the deepest thoughts one could have regarding life and death.  What a stud! 

If only Leo Tolstoy was a climber, perhaps he could help me come up with something better than “you got this”.

Luckily, we live in a world where Leo’s quotes are accessible and easily altered to improve our habituated slogans with a little panache!

That being said, I present…

Tolstoyesque encouragements for climbers:

• “Hurry not, each movement you make already knows the way.”
• “The wall does not resist you; it merely asks you to listen.”
• “Remain with the breath you have, strength follows patience.”
• “You are not failing; you are learning the truth of this moment.”
• “What feels like the end is only the place where resolve begins.”
• “Trust the quiet strength that brought you this far, it will not abandon you now.”
• “The body may tremble, but the will remains steady.”
• “Stay. Adjust. Continue.”
• “The climb is not conquered by force, but by accepting.”
• “You need only the next movement; the rest will follow.
• “Be patient with the rock, as you would with yourself, nothing true is rushed.”

The next time you are moved to encourage some fellow (whether climbing or not) feel free to drop one of the above combinations of words rather that the putrid decomposed arrangement that you might normally be agitated to expel.

You got this!