the beta

In rock climbing there is this thing we call beta. Essentially, beta is the answer to the problem. It is strange though... my beta may be far different than your beta but both betas are equally right. I am tall, you are short, you have long arms and I have short arms, I have long legs and you have a short torso. The way you climb something may look entirely different from the way that I climb something... but they both work equally well. My beta may help Joe Schmoe climb the wall and yours may make him fall on his ass. Beta. It is quite thought provoking.

Life is much like climbing. I have beta, you have beta, both seem to be working. We take the advice of our friends, but what if their life beta isn't going to work for me. How am I to know that their beta isn't going to make me fall on my ass. Because really, I am quite capable of making myself fall on my ass, I don't really need anyone else's help. If I am going to listen to you and what you have to say, it sure as hell better be right. Sadly, that is not the way it works.

Someone should write a beta book. The beta should be organized in such a way that each of us can fall under a certain type of person: tall, height and apex equal, weak ankles, long torso. I could then find myself in the book and follow that beta for my life. It would have to be general beta... things like... handle problems in this way; when you feel emotionally exhausted, spend some time alone, rather than spending more time with people; when life gets hard, keep pushing, you really are capable of doing it; be friends with this type of person rather than this type, it will make your life much easier.

No. It is necessary that I write my own beta, and every once in a while I will get lucky and your beta will work for me. I am going to have to start climbing again... it makes my reality more manageable. Its processes somehow educate me in life. You should give it a try.