Big Ideas

So, I'm taking this basic mountaineering course.  It's kind of weird to have people telling me things that I know by rote.  It's weirder still to try to explain to people why I'm taking the course.  "Wait," they say, "you've climbed that shit, on your own, and you're taking this class?"

Years ago, I did a series of leadership seminars.  Things that were intended to teach group dynamics, how to lead, what it means to lead, the downfalls thereof, etc. etc.  An interesting concept that I picked up from that was what they called (if I recall correctly) the chain of failure.  Namely, that after disaster or accident, be it major or minor, you can trace back the bad decisions that led to it, sometimes for years.  A chain of one bad decision after another.  The idea was to be able to identify, in the future, when you were starting to make bad decisions, and to see where they were leading you.

Personally, I'm a big believer in reading the signs of what the world is saying to you.  I feel like there's a reason why people experience strings of bad luck in their lives.  It has everything to do with how we lead our lives, and the decisions that we make on a daily basis.  If we start to notice things going downhill, it's time to stop and reevaluate.

But similarly, if all is well and we feel like we're in control, I think that it's time to stop and reassess the fundamentals.  Overconfidence has killed more than one person, or dream.  Sometimes the world helps out with that by kicking us with bad luck just as we think we've got it made, just to press the point home.

So I'm taking a fundamental climbing course after years of climbing solo on steep rock and in high mountains; after making expeditions up big peaks and new lines; after having taught this very stuff for years to rank beginners.  And each time I go, I find myself astonished that I'm learning something new.  I learn about technique that has changed since I started; I learn about the area, to which I recently moved; I learn about the ethics and style of my community; I learn about leadership in ways that I had not previously considered. 

And I learn about teaching.  I taught this very type of course for years and years back in Colorado.  But now, from the students' perspective, I see people teaching it to me.  They're very good, and I appreciate that.  But there is a constant and pervasive message of .... something.  Clanishness?  Entitlement?  I dunno.  I see the teaching staff treating the newbies as... something less.

That really resounds with me.  I think back, and I can remember doing the same thing.  I was full of accomplishments when I started teaching, full of daring, full of bravado.  I still am.  But now I'm on the other side of the bench.  I'm learning so much more than they intended to teach.  I'm learning what it means to be a teacher.  I can see and understand my fellow students' struggles, and I see where the teachers' curriculum is frankly absurd and doesn't advance the program.  But much more than that, I am starting to see how the sociology of groups plays such a huge part in learning.  When people feel that they are a part of something, and accepted, they can excel.  And if rejected... failure is a likely option for most.

That's a huge lesson, and it's not at all limited to my narrow little example.