Send

I was driving home from the Gunks tonight, very focused on the fact that I was taking the back roads instead of 87, when the idiot light came on to warn me that I was getting low on gas. It was a surprise. Somehow I’d driven all the way to the Gunks that morning without once thinking about whether or not I could drive back. If the light hadn’t come on, I’m not sure when, or if, I’d have noticed at all.

Technology has brought us many things, like idiot lights and the undo button. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could apply those to life?

Steven led Le Teton cleanly today after backing off it once before. Where he backed off from was about one move away from being done. He told me he kicked himself over that for weeks. Been there, done the kicking. How about a nice undo button to go back to that point in time and pull the one move? Then there would be success instead of failure. Confidence goes up and the next week you lead a little harder, climb a little bolder. A season can hinge on one move and nothing can undo the lack of it.

But sometimes that one move would be a total mistake. Sometimes you need the idiot light: warning, you’re climbing into ground fall range and your last piece sucks and you can’t actually do this next move. Danger, danger. Would you like to re-think? Because a bad fall can derail a season worse than a bad lead.

So I’d like both. The idiot light would give me a heads up, but I’d press on anyway. Which is when the undo button could be useful. Iterative edits, like writing an email. Only climbing–life–is analogous to sending the email. There is no unsend button. Committed is committed. Mistake or not, you live with the results.

Which can be good. Which you don’t know. Until you hit send.

Steven leading Le Teton