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| Messages 1 - 35 of total 35 in this topic |
Brandon-
climber
The Granite State.
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Sh#t, man, thanks for that.
Kindness and compassion are so key in life. We need to remember how to talk to people who are not like us on the outside, as we all are similar on the inside.
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Reeotch
climber
4 Corners Area
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Good for you, Largo!
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mark miller
Social climber
Reno
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Your writings are great even after 4 decades, Thanks John.
Wish more folks could take a few minutes out of their days to realize everything around them.
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Norwegian
Trad climber
dancin on the tip of god's middle finger
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the best education i ever got
was my time spent on the the rails
just west of my university.
each night after my classes,
i'd walk with the other academics down
the sidewalk until we got to the
game trail at which point i'd cut
west and travel through some
urban glade until i popped into camp
and wilts would always have a dry
seat for me and some sort of tarp strung.
we'd immediately get into the wine
and within an hour life simplified.
and we'd share stories deep into the evening;
mine about growing up in a middle class family
in smug America and him about the one thousand
hardships between here and Mississippi.
i loved that crew. i still do.
behind every single set of eyes
is some worthy tale.
this year for thanksgiving i opted out
of the gluttony session at my sister's digs
and instead i went back to campus
and looked for my trail to camp.
there's a coffee shop in the way now
but i didn't give up.. i got a double shot
of expresso and found the new trail
and camp was as ever;
though an entirely new crew,
some young hotties hiding beneath sorrow,
and some lifer's with nothing left to worry about.
i had a rucksack of good eats and wine
and we made a bigger fire in the barrel and
shared down ever after.
one of the fellas told me (it might have been the wine talking)
that he had heard tale of me:
the outstanding engineering student-slash-hobo
that ran camp in the late 90's.
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Brandon-
climber
The Granite State.
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Right on, Chuck.
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Barbarian
climber
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If you give, you will receive. This doesn't mean just money. Sometimes, as Largo experienced, just acknowledging another human being makes you become more human.
Best post of the day I might add!
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Nice John.
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Norwegian
Trad climber
dancin on the tip of god's middle finger
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after graduation i got a good job
and dove in dick first to a career respectable.
tangling strides with my professional peers
left me horribly wanting, for
none of their stories reflected
the zest of a life fought for.
heaping spoons and swollen wallets
make for some damn boring and usually overweight characters.
no thanks.
so i walked,
and got into the woodsman trades
and now once again i've found
a tribe of folks with whom
i can account.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Good job Largo! It only takes a spark to start a fire. maybe you lit some hope in her.
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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Adventures of the Heart. The mind gets to take a back seat and the soul blooms in it's majesty.
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Brandon-
climber
The Granite State.
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I struggle as well.
I'm not obviously as down and out as the woman in John's story, but these people are us. I want to say that we all have these troubles, but that's not necessarily true. Some of us have troubles that others don't, and it's not their fault. Everyone has a story, and everyone is deserving of compassion.
I have a thing about using absolutes in my writing or speech, but this is one case where I feel it is appropriate.
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matty
Trad climber
under the sea
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John you are always an inspiration to me and others. thank you for all you do and share with us!
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Wow. That is the kind of example we need to have set in this country.
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zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
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Here's my Ocean story.
I was running on Ocean and turned east on California and a ways down the block saw an older lady standing bewteen the sidewalk and street. A few folks passed by before I reached where she was.
As I got there she was saying "can somebody help me?". I stopped, turns out she was blind (didn't other folks see her cane?) and counting steps and lost track. I asked which way she wanted to go and we walked on up to the next intersection counting as we went. She said she was fine from there.
Just in case I circled the block and checked. She did just fine.
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Cragar
climber
MSLA - MT
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Large, very large indeed.
Thank you.
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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Good on you John.
The Beatles said it best... "The love you take is equal to the love you make"
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StahlBro
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Thanks for stopping, and thanks for sharing John.
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Ward Trotter
Trad climber
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I try to touch bases with some of the homeless people in my town. I've talked with young guys passing through who are on the road and don't stay in one place too long. I was one of those kids as a teenager ( living on the road mainly in central CA with my home base then in the Santa Barbara area--- and periodically hitching cross country ) and so I like to stay in touch with how their lives are playing out and how they are surviving on the rails or on the road. Many of the girls I have talked to are Lesbians who have been rejected by their families---a huge proportion of young homeless girls (many still minors) are from this background and their sheer numbers came as somewhat of a surprise, but not really.
In my town I have noticed a sharp increase in older homeless people the last few years. Taliking with them I have discovered almost all of them are referred to the local hospital for mental health care. They come from far and wide. This hospital has just recently opened a 20 bed facility for this purpose. They try not to keep those beds full however ---preferring to turn these people out onto the street with a pocket full of pills. As long as the hospital gets a federal and state payment check ,things are cool. These homeless outpatients wander about town close to the vicinity of the hospital and from time to time check in to get more pills or to escape the weather.
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
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the irony and timing couldn't have been more pointed, from where I sit, after researching Joel Osteen just an hour ago (yet again) after he tweeted a couple days ago...
"The facts may tell you one thing. But, God is not limited by the facts. Choose faith in spite of the facts."
I don't think anything surprises me anymore.
:(
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Largo, your choice there has really given me something to think about. It hurts to face up to it but I probably would have passed her right by. Your post is more than a story, it's a lesson.
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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That pic was the best representation I could find per what she looked like. She had darker hair was prettier in my opinion. But it was never about looks.
And that's a great story about the blind woman.
JL
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CCT
Trad climber
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Might want to change the attribution of the photo then, Largo. Right now, it seems to imply that you took it yourself, on your phone.
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l-b-1
climber
new york
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You stole the photo, really?
Wow.
And you of all people were aware of what your post would look like.
Bummer!!!
I wonder, did you come up with the story after looking at the picture?
I hope not.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Busted!
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Norton
Social climber
quitcherbellyachin
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My wife gets mad about the amount of money spent but I have often(maybe 8 times) taken a homeless person to the nearest somewhat decent motel and paid for their room for a night along with $20 for dinner
I have run into a couple of them again and they tell me that being able to take a shower and spend a night in a clean bed with a locked motel door with food in their stomach was wonderful
I could never have afforded to do this when I was younger but it feels good to be able to now.
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Port
Trad climber
Norwalk, CT
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A very kind story. But why take someone else's photo? And it looks like it was alterned to look like a "Shitty phone shot".
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Cragar
climber
MSLA - MT
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They can use socks as well.
A friend of mine does this every year. She tells us all a week or so before x-mas then she has a sock party. The next day she drops them off at our local homeless shelter.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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You stole the photo, really?
Wow.
And you of all people were aware of what your post would look like.
Bummer!!!
I wonder, did you come up with the story after looking at the picture?
I hope not.
Good grief. He made it clear where to picture came from without being asked. You guys calling plagiarism are out of control. "Did you come up with the story after...?" Do you know John? Apparently not.
How much music have you "stolen" from the web at the detriment to the musicians even though they own the content?
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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What do you mean he made it clear where the photo came from? He made it clear that he was lying about where the photo came from. Makes me wonder about the veracity of the rest of the story.
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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Hope it's a true story. The source of that pic smells fishy, though ('shitty phone shot'?).
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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You guys calling plagiarism are out of control. "Did you come up with the story after...?" Do you know John? Apparently not.
The beauty of John's writing is that you do not know if the tale is true. Still very good writing.
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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Just a little tenderness goes a long way. There are no telling how many times we, as we in the human race, let a moment to provide some of that tenderness slip by, for a million different reasons.
Your choice not to do so, speaks volume and hopefully the girl will store your tenderness away and keep it safe, for times that are obviously not good, such as those captured in the photograph. It may be enough to save her over and over again.
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| Messages 1 - 35 of total 35 in this topic |
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