have a good long look.

you can't help but take notice.

different people always stand out a bit...and the missing-an-arm kind of different is hard to miss. i saw a guy at the gym tonight who was different in exactly this way. i was struck by how it affected his climbing style. the prosthetic, which started just below his elbow, was at once a hand that never gets tired and an awkward stilt like distance to be overcome when closeness is called for. i wanted ask him about it. i wanted to know if, all things considered, had it helped or hurt his climbing. i wanted to, but i didn't. for a few reasons. i didn't want this point of physical differentiation to be my in. i didn't want it to become a focus, when i know that like everyone one else, that's not the beginning and end of his story. i didn't want to make things uncomfortable, when he and i and everyone around seemed so at ease with this difference. after all, i didn't know the guy, and isn't it crass to expect he'd like to discuss his armlessness with me?

then he turned around. he turned around and i got a good look at him. i do know him. sort of. wait, no i don't.

this guy turned out to be Aron Ralston. y'know the guy that got pinched by a fallen boulder in a slot canyon in utah? you know, the guy that cut his own arm off with a pocket knife when he realized there was no other path to survival? yeah, that Aron Ralston.

as it turns out i should have asked him. surely anyone with the balls to cut off their own arm, with a less than ideal tool no less would've had no problem telling me fuck myself if he didn't want to talk about it. perhaps i need to give people a bit more credit.