News Flash

All the books I’ve been reading have the same message: Trust the Process.

One is called Art and Fear, Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, one is The Rock Warrior’s Way,(good old Arno Ilgner), and one is Bird By Bird, Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. They all have the same message in radically different mediums. How is this possible?

I first noticed the similarity when I began Art and Fear, and it said that making art and viewing art are different. To viewers what matters is the product. (To climbing magazines and sponsors what matters is the grade). To me what matters is the process. My job is to learn to work on my work and I do that by doing a lot of it. To get better at climbing I try to do a lot of it, to get better at writing I churn out sheets and sheets of what Anne Lamott refers to as shitty first drafts. No matter that they never go farther than that.

Arno Ilgner says to focus on the journey, meaning keep your attention in the present He also says what messes us up is destination thinking, so if, for example, I am very motivated to have done the climb, all my expectations are on the product and not the process. Art and Fear says that it’s often the art we have not done that seems more real in our minds than the pieces we have completed. Anne Lamott talks about new writers wanting to be published before they write a word. We want the end result without the work, without the process. *Sigh* Symptom of society.

Theoretical questions aside, this brings me to my point: living is work, work is art, life is art, climbing is art. It’s a process that you pay attention to, it takes you to an end result that may or may not be viewed favorably by everyone else. But you keep on anyway because you are compelled and it is the process that motivates and moves you and damn everything else.

For climbers, it’s working out that crux sequence.

For artists, it’s forming the vision in their head to the piece of paper or block of clay or wall space that’s their medium.

For climbers, it’s simply the line, unlocking the sequence that brings you to the top.

Climbing is a dance up the wall incorporating mind and body and control and trust and fear and risk – a most satisfying combination. You don’t get that anywhere else, a phenomenon that makes John Long refer to climbing as “the king of sports.” I got that quote from Vertical Frontier.

I realize that as I devote myself to climbing, I feel and act more certain in other areas of my life as well. Yesterday dawned crisp and sunny and I couldn’t find a climbing partner. I packed up and headed to Smith anyway, bolstering my less than outgoing nature with noncommittal phrases like, “How’s it going today?” and, “Anyone looking for a partner?”

Oh, it was painful and awkward, but I reminded myself that we share a common bond; the love of climbing, even if it manifests in different ways, even if they all climb circles around me. But I got out there, got in three routes, hobnobbed with the locals you could say. And I’ll do it again if I have to. I might even start to like it, like them. Who cares, as long as I’m climbing.