A Friend-Assist

I just got back from a fund-raiser hike at the Grand Canyon. More than twenty people came together to raise funds for an international adoption organization (The Hope Effect) and to have a fun, exhilarating, and physically depleting hike.

There were all kinds of people with many different ranges of hiking abilities. Once we started, people were out hiking for anywhere from 6 ½ hours to 35 hours. Many people hiked all through the darkness of the night, finishing just after the sun rose 24 hours from the start. One guy was out there for 35 hours. He was a plodder with a positive attitude, tenacious, and he hiked throughout the darkness of night. As the end of the trail came for him, the leader for the group, who has set the course record this year, put his hiking shoes back on and hiked down to our last hiker to walk with him and encourage up the last steep slopes of the magnificent canyon.

The day after I got back home, I happened to watch a movie called The Dawn Wall (Red Bull Media House/Sender Films - 2017). It is a documentary film tracking free climbing phenoms, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson and their daunting climb up the Dawn Wall in Yosemite National Park. Tommy and Kevin became friends with the sole purpose of scaling this wall - a first for any human.

The movie explores Tommy's life leading up to the climb and then Tommy and Kevin’s friendship that develops as they meticulously plan their route. The day comes when they start out. SPOILER ALERT - they make it, but it was almost just “he” made it. Kevin had a really difficult time with one area that he tried over and over and failed over and over. Tommy continued upward hoping his buddy would eventually make that section. Tommy was almost done - finishing all the most difficult climbs. And then he stopped. He decided that he and Kevin had dreamed and planned to do this together. He wasn't going to complete it without his friend. So he returned back to his friend, told him he was not going to the top without him. And so...they did it together.

I really loved that part of the story. I hadn’t heard the story, so I was surprised. I longed for more men to have relationships like that.

Relationships that dream and plan together.

Relationships that come alongside each other with an assist.

Relationships that sacrifice personal goals and accolades for relational ones.

Relationships that meet mutual goals and mutually revel in the joint accomplishment.

Are you that kind of friend? I hope to be!

#braverandstrongertogether #TheDawnWall #TommyCaldwell #KevinJorgeson #GiveTheAssist #HopeEffect #climbing #Hope #friendship #masculinity