September, '99

Few things are more powerful than seeing, especially unrehearsed and in person, a literal example of an idea. I was at Planet Granite, the local rock climbing gym, and there was a childrens party there. Lots of little kids in harnesses, being belayed so that they could climb safely. For those who don't know, belay is when the climbers harness has an attached rope that goes up to a pulley at the top of the climb, and then back down to be held by a person called the belayer. The belayers job is to steadily take up the slack as the climber climbs, and if he falls, the belayer locks the rope using a mechanical device, so the climber hangs from his harness instead of plummeting to the ground.

If the belayer keeps the rope taut, it supports part of the climbers weight, but also can pull him away from the wall, (depending on exactly where the pulley is). Especially if the climber is small, and doesn't weight much. Well, there was this little kid, maybe 6 years old. And he was a born climber, I mean this tyke was a natural. He'd jump on the bottom hold and start swarming up instantly, without fear, and without needing to think about what to do. But his dad was a bit overprotective, and didn't seem to take his sons climbing seriously at all. He was the belayer, and he kept the line so taut that after a few feet of climbing, the kid would start being pulled away from the wall by the pressure on the rope. He would struggle against it, trying to climb higher, but he would always fail, and swing away from the wall, and be let down to the ground by his dad.

His dad didn't seem to think this was sad, didn't seem to feel any need to let the kid succeed, or to experience pride in his ability. He just didn't take the kids efforts seriously, and in fact seemed to think that having the kid pulled off the wall was the right thing to have happen. Its not clear whether he was overprotective and scared to give slack, whether he was ignorant of physics and just didn't understand what was happening, thinking the kid was falling on his own, or whether he just didn't want to let the kid climb. Whatever the reason, the tragedy was repeated again and again, and I thought it was truly, deeply sad. The overprotective parent holding his child back, and the child failing because of not being given enough slack. Literally.

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