Choosing a Hill to Die On (Or Knowing When to Give Up)

Determining whether things are worth the trouble is an interesting process.  It has been on my mind a lot recently, and I have approached the concept from a variety of very different contexts.  In examining faith, a book I was reading pointed out that contrasting creation vs. evolution is not the hill to die on (the ground to be held at all costs), compared to the question of whether or not Jesus was the son of God.  Some battles are not worth winning, because they are just a distraction from the larger issues at hand.

I just had dinner with someone who was describing all of the steps they had taken to protect themselves from identity thieves.  He is concerned that someone will break into his home, and take documents that will allow them to steal his identity.  While this is technically possible, it seems ludicrous to worry about it.  He was telling me how he hid things in different places, and camouflaged his safe to appear to be a box of old Christmas decorations.  All this effort was motivated by the long trip he is about to take, in case someone breaks into his unoccupied home while he is gone.  Considering he will be gone for a whole week, I am betting against it.  I am leaving for longer than that tomorrow morning, and have made no preparations besides packing.  It’s just not worth the trouble; I am willing to take the risk.

In a more literal case, we can take a look at it in the context of self-defense.  I recently ceased to be a member of the unarmed populace.  A .22 is a good option to start with, since it is relatively cheap, and is perfectly sufficient for most uses.  It can take care of coyotes and skunks if needed, and is enough to defend oneself against an unarmed intruder.  In an armed conflict though, it will be outmatched by nearly any other option.

Does that mean I need a bigger gun?  Well, at the rate arms are being acquired by both citizens and the government right now, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a large scale conflict in the foreseeable future.  From a philosophical standpoint, I side in favor of a stronger "public," with the government serving "at the will of the people."  That is what being a patriot was about during the American Revolution.

But if it came down to a conflict like that again, hundreds of years later, it would go down very differently.  The cost was high a few hundred years ago, but would be much greater now.  This begs the question: am I adequately prepared to survive in that scenario?  And more importantly, would I want to?  If I ever get into a situation where my .22 is "not powerful enough" for the adversary at hand, I don't know if I really want to face the outcome of that conflict, even if I do manage to prevail.

I am not the type of guy to give up easily, so this is not in-line with my usual thinking.  But I have persevered in past situations to the point where the resultant pain wasn't worth the trouble, and nothing appears to have been accomplished in the bigger picture.  This causes one to re-think things a bit, depending on what's on the line, and maintain a wider perspective on things.

Encouragement must be based on Truth

I heard this statement a few days ago, and I think it is significant on a number of levels.  Truth is an important concept from any perspective.  All the more so when applied to encouragement.  The statement was made in the context of a discussion about the difference between flattery and encouragement.  The both could be true, but flattery implies the motivation of looking for something in return, while encouragement is for the benefit of the recipient.  Flattery doesn't have to be true to be effective (at least not for its intended purpose), but I think encouragement does.

I have never been a fan of white lies, or anything remotely close to that.  My future wife will have to learn not to ask me questions that she doesn't want to hear the answer to.  But on the other hand, when I do have something positive to say, it will always be genuine and meaningful.

I see people using fake encouragement all the time when I am working on a ropes course.  Statements like "you are almost there," are thrown around, when "that's a good step, now let's try letting go of the tree," might be more accurate.  If one of the objectives is to build trust, then lying the whole time is probably not a good approach.  Whom do we think we are kidding?  In that particular context, I don't usually lack assertive encouragement, but I always do so in an accurate and truthful way, with a running dialog of things like "that's good, keep moving forward, one step at a time, keep breathing, you are getting there, etc."

In other contexts I am not as good at encouraging people.  I have an especially difficult time saying encouraging things to people in regards to their appearance.  This is not because I think they look bad, but for at least three other discrete reasons.  For one, I am someone who values function over form, so I am not very focused on appearance to begin with, so there are many things in that regard that I just don't actually notice.  Then I feel like any statement I actually make is an implicit comparison, reflecting negatively on their previous state.  Lastly, in regards to complimenting females, I don't like to appear to be flattering someone, even if I know I am being genuine.

I have come to understand that many people, especially females, actually notice the lack of feedback in that regard.  So in many cases, there is no such thing as a neutral response.  "Anything you don't say, can and will be held against you."  Obviously I am being a bit dramatic, but the point remains.  And I am working on trying to be more responsive and encouraging in that regard, but it is not something I am real comfortable with, even when it is true.

Planning

I have a friend who, in her words, had never made a plan in her life.  As a result, her lifestyle was very different from mine.  I used to tease her about the negative aspects of that difference, but she was used to being how she was.  I on the other hand, have always valued planning ahead, and not so much far-into-the-future as detailed-and-precise.  The farthest ahead I probably ever planned was my move to NorCal, which took three years of preparation to bring about, but it worked.  But my plans for whatever my next step is are usually very defined and exact, with a discrete timeframe.  I used to work at camp with some people who took the attitude that "the Lord will provide."  My perspective was more like "the Lord will provide, by sending people like me, who actually know how to plan."

It is interesting to see that my friend has learned to plan in the last year or so, and is now making plans for the year after next, and the following summer.  While I don't even know what I am doing in March, let alone this summer.  In my case it is more about timetables, in that I know some of the things I plan to do, but I don't have an exact plan for when to do them.  After last summer's trip across the country took so many unexpected turns, and everything worked out fine, I have learned that it is okay not to plan certain things.

I always like to illustrate my previous perspective on planning with the old pipe game.  The objective of this classic computer game was to build a pipe system progressively longer, faster than the liquid flowing through the pipes toward the end at a constant rate.  Plans are like the pipes, they get created in parts, at various times, and don't necessarily all connect early on in the process.  Time is like the liquid in the pipe, constantly advancing forward at a steady rate, whether you are prepared for it or not.  And we hurry to string the pipes together soon enough to control the flow of liquid through them.  Certain pipes laid down may not end up getting used at all, depending on the route taken.

In the game, the round is immediately over when the liquid reaches the end of the pipe and "spills out."  I subconsciously assumed the same thing would happen in life, and worked hard to make sure my plans kept up with the progression of time.  But that is not true, and in real life, things keep going when we run out of plans.  The direction of flow is not necessarily controlled by us, but may happen to reach some of the other pipes we have laid.  But we don't know how long it might take for the flow to get there, or if it will at all.  (This is probably good practice for the two player version of the game, where your partner might have a few pipes that don't naturally fit with the pipes you have been laying.)

Anyhow, after "winning the game" for years, the water reached the end of my pipe about a year and a half ago, and it would appear that I have continued to survive.  Life is very different now, and I have learned a lot.  I probably have a ways to go before I could be as free or impulsive as certain other people I know, but that is not necessarily the objective.  I am a lot more flexible than I used to be, and am becoming more spontaneous as well.  So Hawaii, here I come!

Challenge Course Standards and Regulations

Challenge courses have been in an interesting position since their original development in the 60s and 70s.  They have managed to operate without much regulation or oversight for a long time, which is pretty surprising.  They have an inherently physical risk, and serious psychological effects.  These effects can be positive growth or negative damage depending on the situation, but the physical risk is always there.  Much of that risk is due to the heights involved, but most injuries actually take place on low elements.

The growing popularity (and profitability) of zipline canopy tours is rapidly changing the landscape of the challenge course industry.  The focus is shifting from "challenge" and personal growth, to creating "rides" that anyone in the general public can do, with minimal effort.  I seem to be one of the only people actively opposed to that shift, but for at least one obvious reason.  I am not trying to make money in the ropes course business, it is my ministry.  The fact that ziplines generate more potential revenue, naturally leads to the development of more expensive tools to further increase capacity or automation, and therefore profit.  The issue is, that while many of these expensive devices are brilliantly engineered, they don't increase safety as much as they "appear" to, but that won't prevent them from being required by mandate in the near future.  Something that is "automatic" is not necessarily safer than something operated manually, but it does remove some level of potential human error.  On the other hand, potential mechanical failure needs to be accounted for with further costly "backup" systems.

The end result is that I can already see that most of the equipment expenses for the things I build will go up by a factor of ten in the next year or two, and many already have.  It is amusing to see how fast things are changing, in that things I do that were normal a few years ago are now considered archaic.  Most people are stunned that I would be willing to risk my life climbing trees with nothing but staples in them, when there are so many more (expensive) options available.  Ironically much of what I do is to bring older courses up to current standards, but that will become much harder to do as the standards continue to require more expensive changes.

This wouldn't be a forced change if it wasn't for the other result of the growing popularity of canopy tours, government regulation.  I got my first taste of that last summer, with the zipline regulations in Pennsylvania.  Ironically, the most unsafe zipline I had ever seen was there, but the rules say that it has to be certified by an amusement park inspector every month, not that it actually has to be safe.  As more states adopt similar rules, the complexity of satisfying multiple standards organizations, as well as multiple government agencies, will effectively end my ministry in its current form.

So I walk away from a ropes course convention not very excited about building ropes courses, which is not how that is usually supposed to work.  God seems to be giving my ministry favor to continue in the short term, but I find it difficult to imagine how it could continue for more than a year.  But I guess most everything in life is like that, by design.  Things are supposed to be sustained by God, not us.  (But it can still bother me;)

Las Vegas-Ropes Course Style

I have spent the last few days in Las Vegas, at a convention for ropes course professionals, of all people.  It provides a stark contrast between the type of people who usually frequent casinos, and people who are fit enough for doing serious work at heights.  Casinos are full of people smoking and drinking, filling out oversized chairs in front of slot machines.  Ropes courses are run by people who get looks of exercise, and stay in shape to be able to climb effectively.  It is easy to identify who is here for the conference, even without our distinctive name tags.  And most of them don't have enough money to be doing much gambling, although that seems to be changing.

Ropes course used to be an extension of camp or education programs, which are traditionally not highly profitable enterprises.  So the budgets involved were relatively low across the board, limiting the market for any expensive products.  With the development of newer high volume adventure parks, and huge canopy tours, there is a lot more money in the industry than there used to be.  New extremely expensive products are being released that there would have had zero potential market five years ago at their price point.  But the public expects everything to be idiot-proof and "safe," so that increases the costs by an order of magnitude.  The engineering that goes into some to this gear is truly brilliant, but seemingly unnecessary with a little common sense.

We are at the Red Rock Resort, which is miles from the Strip, so it is a self contained entity.  Besides the hotel casino, and of course the conference center, there are a variety of restaurants, a bowling alley, and a 16 theater movie complex with an IMAX screen.  So there are hundreds of outdoorsy people here, who won't have to step out from under the roof of the building for the entirety of the three or four days they are here.

It has been amusing to observe how different this experience has been from my annual trips to NAB.  It is at least a thousand times smaller, and I am attending as a participant instead of a presenter, so I am actually spending much of the time in lecture sessions.  It is not an industry I am recognized in, and I hardly know any of the people involved, so I have spent the whole time with complete strangers, which has been challenging.  Even though the broadcast technology industry is much larger, I have a much more recognized role, and respect from many of the key players.  So I rarely have a shortage of people to talk to, or a lack of possible topics to discuss.

I am one of the few people attending the event who is not here as part of a larger group or team, from their company or school.  Way too much of my traveling has been totally alone over the last few years.  And while I have been to NAB alone as well, I know enough people there by this point, that I have a much easier time.

Someone I Just Met

I have really missed camp the last few months, after moving away from the one I had worked at for a long time.  I have no doubt camp is where I am called to serve, and probably to eventually once again live.  It is just a matter of which one, and when.  So I spent the weekend volunteering at another camp for a high school retreat.  I usually like working at camp, for a whole variety of reasons.  While it was interesting to see how yet another camp operates, and a fairly big one at that, I wasn't that stoked on this particular experience.  I originally agreed to help out as an effort to get more involved at my church, but it turns out this was a much larger regional event, in which my church played a fairly small role.  I don't think I met a single person from our high school group the whole time I was there.

I spent the whole weekend in the kitchen, and never even saw most of the 500 campers that we were cooking for.  I am not much of a customer service person, so playing an indirect supporting role usually doesn't bother me, but the whole reason I was there was to become more connected.  Instead I spent more of the time working with a bunch of strangers, for a bunch of strangers.  I did interact with a smaller group of about 50 Campus Life students from Grass Valley, who were also there serving.  I already knew most of their leaders, and I only got to know a couple of their students by name, but a few of them stood out.

I made it through the weekend, and got home Sunday afternoon, watched the 49ers throw away a Super Bowl, and then headed off to bed for a 6am departure to LA.  After a long day at work, I saw a message on Facebook that got my attention.  It turns out one of the girls I was working with over the weekend, one of the ones I definitely remember, got killed in a major car accident Sunday evening.  Obviously that is always a tragic situation, but I find it all the more shocking to hear, since we had just worked together that very morning.

Now it was a single car wreck, where the 17 year old driver lost control of his vehicle.  And the two girls killed weren't wearing seat belts, and legally weren't even supposed to be in the car.  So I am not sure how to feel about the fact that the entire event seems to have been totally preventable with a little common sense.  That doesn't make it any less tragic, and maybe more so from a certain perspective.

That happened February 3^rd, and the last major accident I dealt with, in a much more direct way, was December 3^rd.  I posted about that incident the day after it happened, but never updated later, to add that the guy we pulled out never recovered, and passed away in the hospital two weeks later.  There has been a serious lack of positive things happening the last few months, but no shortage of negative ones.  Hopefully we can turn that trend around in the near future, because it is getting pretty discouraging.

It is interesting to contemplate that if I had missed that post, being in LA, I never would have heard of this happening.  Would that be better or worse?  I appear to have gained nothing but sorrow from finding out, and it is fairly unlikely I ever would have seen her again anyway.  But as I all too frequently say, “better than living a lie.”  I hope that’s actually true.