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Show 135. which destroy the rock, and by using their own bodies rather than artificial aids to get them up Yosemite walls. But that too can become a competitive game. How much protection did you need? someone asks when you return to camp. How long did it take? Who led the crux pitch? I can remember doing an early "free ascent" of a climb in Yosemite years ago, and returning to the Valley to discover that others had watched us through a spotting scope to make sure we really did the climb as we said we had. There will always be competition in these kinds of activities, and there will always be people who engage in them only because they are competitive. Beyond these superficial trappings, one hopes there is something which leads to an awareness greater than one's self. That is what Muir knew, and he wrote his narratives not in order to congratulate himself on his exploits, not in order to say exactly what he had accomplished, but to demonstrate what was essential and enlightening about the activity. A literal-minded analysis of Muir's narratives is a waste of time, because they are not about a literal truth. They are about the eternal quest of the human toward enlightenment. No doubt there is an erotic side to this quest, but one hopes that it is healthy eroticism. If Muir "lied" by fictionalizing his exploits, if he was not enlightened, then one can only commend him because he knew so clearly what the way to enlightenment was like. He knew that it was more important than personal glory. I bring up this issue because it dramatizes something which Muir never said explicitly. Recreation is a more complex |