fallure

I was recently talking with my dear friend Molly Nichols, an amazing person and human being extraordinaire who currently works at the Eagle Rock School in the Rocky Mtn. National Park. She was telling me about a concept they use with the students, and I think it's one of the best analogies for life I've ever heard (besides those ubiquitous Aesop's Fables, of course).

When they take the kids rock climbing, they talk about the difference between failure and fallure. Say you've been climbing for a while and you're starting to feel it pretty bad. You're tired, sweaty, your arms are getting weaker with each pull and you know you're done. When you look up and see the next hold, you have one of two options:
You could either let go of the rock and fall back into your belay rope, which would be failure.
Or you could at least go for that next hold even though you know you probably won't make it...which would be fallure.

I liked hearing someone tell about a concept that, though undefined, has been part of my nature throughout my life. It was a reinforcement of what I've already been doing anyway, especially recently.
I don't really believe life is necessarily always about getting the result you want or expect, but how would you know unless you tried? In the end, that might be the better result than what you wanted anyway. Of course, I'd add that the second piece to this would be knowing yourself and being aware of yourself and how you affect others and the world.

It's not always a painless modus operandi, but I'd rather die a fallure than a failure.