The Daily - August 12,2021 - 37

COURTESY DIERDRE WOLOWNICK
AGE IS MEANINGLESS. I'VE ALWAYS
KNOWN THAT. MAYBE IT HAS SOMETHING
TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT NUMBERS
HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A MYSTERY TO ME.
the ground. They watch you, maybe
thinking about other things.
You know they'll catch you if you
fall. But they don't participate.
Others do. They encourage,
cheer, shout helpful things, suggestions
or other beta they think
you might need. Or they shout
silly things to make you smile and
forget what you were afraid of. To
help you keep going. They help you
climb. Like those office workers
who helped me run.
This is why I climb better,
harder, more capably with my
son than with some of my other
climbing partners. Many of my
partners worry about me. They say
that a climb is too hard for me, the
approach too gnarly. That I'll get
too tired, or at my age (they mean
but don't say) I shouldn't be doing
this or that. Alex always assumes
I can reach the top of whatever
challenge we set for ourselves. If he
has doubts, he never voices them.
Whether I'll reach the summit, like
that finish line, is never in question
when we adventure together.
Knowing that makes me believe
it, too.
When you know that someone
else is pulling for you, hoping for
you, things go better. Every parent
knows this; kids need a great deal
of encouragement, at every step
in their development, at every age.
Teenagers like to pretend they're
too old to have a grownup rooting
for them, urging them forward,
upward; fortunately, their parents
know better.
Do we outgrow that need?
I thought so. Until I became a
senior athlete. A " Master " runner.
An older climber.
AGE IS MEANINGLESS. I'VE ALWAYS
known that. Maybe it has something
to do with the fact that
numbers have always been a
mystery to me. I can crunch them,
if need be; I can balance my bank
account-but when I read a bunch
of numbers on a page, my brain
glosses over them as just so many
meaningless squiggles. Age is just a
number. Just a bunch of squiggles.
No meaning whatsoever.
At any age-whatever the
squiggles say-others influence us
more than we might realize. When
you're at the end of your rope,
digging deep, other peoples' voices
matter. Deep in our psyches, we're
tied to each other. Linked. Joined
in a union that defies age, gender,
color, language, or any other
category we use to separate people.
Strangers affect us more than we
care to admit.
Will a day come when I no
longer need encouragement? Or is
that a lifelong need? For where I
am in life right now, it can be the
difference between doing a climb
or backing off. Finishing a race, or
walking back to the car.
Or writing another blog. Or essay.
Or book. Writing is the loneliest
job. One works alone, at a desk,
at the kitchen table, in a car or in
a café hunched over a keyboard,
making thoughts visible. Alone.
If you're lucky, you have an editor
who will read and enthuse. Or
critique and encourage. If you're
lucky, you have an audience to read
your words and react. Even luckier
if people pay you for it.
People are the common factor
in this equation. We need each
other. I always suspected that
was true. But it took becoming
an athlete for me to realize
just how deeply that need runs
through all of us.
No matter how old-or young-
we are.
The author of The Sharp
End of Life: A Mother's Story,
Dierdre Wolownick started
long-distance running at
55 and has completed numerous
marathons, half-marathons,
and other races. She
started rock climbing aat 59
with her son, Alex Honnold,
and at 66 became the oldest
woman to scale El Capitan,
Yosemite's iconic 3,200-foot
granite wall. Encouraging
words helped her accomplish
those feats.
The author belays
another senior
newbie climber at
Pipeworks gym in
Sacramento.
OUTDOOR RETAILER SUMMER 2021 /
37
The Daily - August 12,2021

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