And Speaking of Whatever Happened To....

Well I didn't need Google to find this one out. Long time readers (all two of you) might remember this little memoir of when I took a rock climbing course at my gym. Well, over the years, I noticed that Lyle had disappeared from the place. I knew he was graduating high school, so I figured maybe he had just wandered off, gone to college, whatever it is that the kids do!

Over the weekend I was at a cool specialty grocery store called Trader Joe's. I'm standing at the checkout line, and lo and behold, there's Lyle saying hi to me. He's working at the store and giving balloons out to kids! He apparently hadn't gone climbing in some time, mainly because he no longer got paid to do it. He just decided it was time to move on...and probably get a better paying job in the process.

It made me stop to think though. Here was a guy who seemed to be a big time rock climber. I could tell he loved doing it, and he was very, very good at it too. I started calling him "Spiderman" (OK, I did it twice) because of how easily he just scaled the most difficult rock walls at the gym. And here he was basically getting paid to do something he loved doing.

Unfortunately, it must not have been enough. Whether it was a time thing or a money thing, I certainly wouldn't presume to know his reasons, but something obviously motivated him to give that up. I would bank on it being a money issue. It just seems so wrong when you see that happen, when you have to give up happiness for something more practical like working in a grocery store. But I guess we all have to do what we all have to do.