I have always aimed to send a strong message to the world about what is “possible” while living with diabetes-and climbing has proven an ample medium for that. No type of climbing typifies self reliance and adventure more than climbing first ascents-being the first party to travel up a rock face via a given series of features. It’s creative, it’s unknown and it’s significant-because it’s not a place where people with diabetes “belong”.
I just recorded episode 5 of the LivingVertical Diabeticast and it may shock you to hear that I sort of cringe in late October knowing that November is “all about diabetes”. So rather than just keep my feelings to myself, I decided to share 5 reasons that the month of November and the inundation of all things diabetes are difficult for me. See, I don’t hate diabetes-or diabetes awareness. Quite the opposite, as I have dedicated much of my life to sharing and promoting awareness. It’s just hard to live with diabetes and spend your life streamlining diabetes as a condition so it doesn’t require constant attention being drawn to it-and then turn around and have a month where you have to undo all of that in order to get people to notice all the effort of the previous 11 months!
This past weekend I was in New York climbing at the Gunks while shooting a video for the exciting new #smashdiabetes campaign (www.smashdiabetes.org -go check out the vid, it’s pretty sweet!) and I had a chance to share some stories about the Team LivingVertical climbing meetup that took place this summer in City Of Rocks in Idaho-with Jeffrey Lash who is a Type 1 Diabetic climber and member of our loosely affiliated team of adventurous diabetics.
Super cheery stuff in this third episode of the diabeticast-it’s tough dealing with it but it’s a big part of my life with diabetes as a climber. I was inspired to think about the way we view our relationship with success or failure when reading THIS ARTICLE by Riva Greenberg who generally writes really amazing pieces about her life with diabetes.
This is my first podcast-and we are stoked to be connecting with you through this medium. The LivingVertical blog will still be going strong at www.livingvertical.org but the podcast will be our focus as we move forward. Subscribe on iTunes! I promise to do my best to keep things interesting!
special thanks to Montes Rook for the use of their music (which you really ought to check out!)
