I am sending this to climbing magazine...I doubt they will publish it but it's worth a try huh?
Last April I was fed up with working, so I decided not to. Instead I moved all my stuff into my car and proclaimed myself “a climbing bum” until September. When people asked what my summer plans were I bragged about the life sans responsibility. I spent my days climbing, evenings drinking beer with friends and sleeping wherever I could find a spot for my sleeping bag. I loved living my life day by day, the biggest decisions being where to climb and what to eat for dinner. Oftentimes I went a week without a shower, but it didn’t matter, the only contact I had with non-climbers was going in to town to buy food., and I wasn’t too concerned with strangers seeing me in my stinky state.
Since this time I have reflected a lot on what it means to be a “climbing bum” and I have come to understand that it carries with it a lot of white privilege. I now recognize that a person of color would probably never proclaim themselves “bums” of any kind. I presume that if an African American said she was tired of working and would rather play basketball all day and drink beer with her friends, she would be called irresponsible and lazy, whereas I was not only supported in my decision but also envied. Furthermore, I have come to realize that others in my community may not have the same luxury of being able to frequent any store in whatever state of cleanliness they happen to be in. When I go to the grocery store, un-showered, dressed in dirty climbing clothes, I don’t receive suspicious looks, nor do people follow me around the store, sure I am about to steal something. I have always known that racism still exists in our society but the truth is that I had never realized just how privileged I was, simply by being white…even with something so much a part of my life as climbing. I will always be a climber, but thanks to Mitch Wilkinson I see the world just a little bit differently.
