Diamonds in the Rough

goingonhope · #1 23-10-2006, 05:51 AM

Climbing Is a Sport
(Journey)
Author Unknown

Climbing is a sport, but climbing in the mountains, like ocean racing or crossing a desert takes place in different conditions from those of common sports. A climb is not a sort of a game which can be stopped at any time. Even if you are at the limits of endurance, if your feet feel like lead, if nothing but extreme effort of will keeps you going, even if lightning is flashing across the sky, you cannot sit down and say, "I've had enough. I'm giving up. I quit." And even when you do get to the top, the rock is still not half finished. This is undoubtedly the hardest of rules to accept, but it is nevertheless an attraction: on every crest the climber must ride his whole self.

goingonhope · #2 23-10-2006, 04:47 PM

Climb if You Will
(Community)
Edward Whymper

Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are nothing without prudence, and that a moment's negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime.

anthony · #3 24-10-2006, 02:16 AM

Oh how I see your point in relation to the climb with PTSD. Very much the same ha hope? A good analogy.

goingonhope · #4 24-10-2006, 05:59 AM

...yes, you got it, very much the same.

goingonhope · #5 25-10-2006, 08:12 AM

Exploring
(Journey)
Wendell Berry

Always in the big woods when you leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread. It is the ancient fear of the Unknown, and it is your first bond with the wilderness you are going into. What you are doing is exploring. You are undertaking the first experience, not of the place, but of yourself in that place. It is an experience of our essential loneliness; for nobody can discover the world for anybody else. It is only after we have discovered it for ourselves that it becomes a common ground and a common bond, and we cease to be alone.

goingonhope · #6 26-10-2006, 05:55 AM

The Educational Engineer
(Leadership)
Leon Lessinger

A good engineer begins by challenging assumptions. He refuses to believe that something is impossible merely because it has never been done or because people say there is no way to do it or because it would upset established ways. The good engineer, in the field of education as elsewhere, starts with a goal to be achieved, not with the dead weight of precedent or unexamined beliefs. Like the runner who finally broke the four minute mile, he knows that the limits of possibility are stretched not solely by pushing from within, but by setting an outside goal and doing what is necessary to reach it. In track competition, once the four minute mark was set, other runners soon matched the feat, mainly because they had learned that it was possible. Their assumptions had changed.

goingonhope · #7 27-10-2006, 01:41 AM

What Are the Qualities of Life?
(Values)
Mike Gass

What are the qualities of Life?

It can be shared forever, but cannot be kept forever.

When given to another, it brings great joy to all; when taken, the anguish for many is great.

It is sometimes maintained by less than the thread of a string and sometimes lost despite the hope of millions.

Its frailty and end are obvious, but its strength and limits endless.

So share your life with me while we are together so we can create that which will bring joy to others.

When this life is over, let the meaning of our lives be found not on a list of accomplishments, but in the hearts and souls of the people with whom we shared our fragile existence.

Let our lives not be measured so much by what we did for others, but by what we helped people do for themselves.

goingonhope · #8 28-10-2006, 01:33 AM

Education
(Values)
Robert Frost

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-control.

goingonhope · #9 29-10-2006, 01:16 AM

Our Approach: Is Falling Failing?
(Journey)
Mike Stratton

While you learned to walk, you fell often...
You fell often off your first bike...
You usually fall off your first time in a kayak...
So, when teaching climbing or just climbing rocks...expect to fall...expect to fail...
teach how to fall...teach how to fail, how to help one who falls or fails
(spotting and encouragement).
Falling-failing is part of climbing and of life...
The hard part is getting up and trying again.
It's like knot tying...if you fail to tie the right knot, you untie it and try again.
You'll feel much better, safer, and more comfortable with the right knot.

goingonhope · #10 30-10-2006, 07:36 AM

Every Child
(Journey)
Theodore Roosevelt

Every child has inside him an aching void for excitement and if we don't fill it with something which is exciting and interesting and good for him, he will fill it with something which is exciting and interesting and which isn't good for him.