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TIGHTROPE

                                             August   19, 2010
                                             November 14, 2011
                                             February  4, 2013


    This was an insight that I picked-up
    on learning to "tight rope walk"--
    though in my case, it was walking
    across the football goal posts in the
    school field behind my house.

    The risk of "walking a tightrope
    without a net" is exaggerated because
    there *is* something below you that
    you can use to stop your fall: the
    rope itself.

    If you start to lose it, you can just
    dive and grab what's under your feet.

      I suspect walking the goal posts
      was harder than a "tight rope"
      would've been (more like a "loose
      rope"):

      This was an H-shaped design made
      of springy metal, it wobbled
      side-to-side tremendously, but I
      found I could learn to just *go
      with it*, letting my feet slide
      back and forth along with the
      wobbling cross-bar...


                         That would be the second
                         insight: when things are
                         in motion you need to go
                         with the motion if you
                         want to be able to move
                         yourself.

                         There was a mean trick I
                         sometimes played on a friend        Obviously, this
                         of mine: we would climb up          was in the
                         opposite poles, stand on the        monkey pack
                         cross-bar, and I found if I         period.
                         grabbed the upright and shook
                         it back and forth, the entire             CLIMBING
                         structure would shake, and
                         he didn't know what to do:
                         he would wrap his body around
                         the upright, hugging it as
                         tight as he could, and
                         get totally beaten up by
                         the metal upright banging
                         back-and-forth.

                         If you just stay calm and
                         step back you can hold the          If we're talking
                         upright loosely to maintain         metaphors here,
                         your balance, and if it             however, then
                         wobbles back and forth, you         all of the
                         can absorb the motion with          parameters are
                         your arm.                           variable, and
                                                             it's worth
                                                             remembering
                                                             that this stance
                                                             only works as
                                                             long as the
                                                             range of motion
                                                             is shorter than
                                                             your arm.

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