Story: Yamato and the Mermaid

Yamato and the Mermaid

There once was a man named Yamato. In all of the land, nobody was his equal as a warrior. Since he was so brave and noble, Yamato could have had any woman in the land as his wife. One day, after saving the king's daughter, Princess Tachibana, from an evil band of thieves, he was rewarded with her hand in marriage. He gladly accepted, proud of his achievements and ability to serve the kingdom.

Yamato and Tachibana lived for many years happily. Yamato slayed villains left and right with Tachibana at his side. Every time he was praised in the city for his bravery, he felt renewed and re-energized by the cheers of his people. However, the criminals soon left the city to get away from Yamato. As crime left, the praise became sparing. Though his beloved wife supported him and admired him all the time, Yamato began to feel unsatisfied. He began to pull away from his wife, little by little, until one day he could not rest any longer.

Yamato left to go on an adventure. To start, he packed up his hunting supplies and took to the forest.

For several days Yamato chased the wooden creatures. At first, he hunted a squirrel. Then, he took down a white-tailed deer. The following day, he even trapped a bear as big as a mountain. Running out of challenges, Yamato pushed further into the darkness of the woods.

As he was bending down to place another trap, he started to hear something. At first, it was just a faint, almost dream-like melody that was barely louder than a whisper. But as the song grew louder, Yamato could not prevent himself from listening to it. As he listened, he didn't even notice that his feet were beginning to move out of the forest and onto a white, rocky beach. He reached the shore and kept going, diving into the ocean, swimming until he found himself in a dark, damp cave.

"Hello Yamato. Welcome to my home.", welcomed a warm, pointed voice.

Yamato snapped out of his daze for a moment. Staring across the cave from him was a mermaid more beautiful than any human woman he had ever laid eyes on.

"How did I end up here? And who are you exactly, fair maiden?", he answered.

"I am Benten, queen of the seas. And you, my dear Yamato, are going to be my newest servant."

Before he could protest, Yamato began to melt at the sound of the mermaid's melodious voice singing. He walked over to her and fell into her arms.

"Shh shhh... that's it. Soon you will be fighting all of my battles and we'll have the greatest kingdom this world has ever seen, land or sea."

Yamato, fading in and out of consciousness, felt his eyes grow heavier by the second. Just before his mind gave into the darkness completely, he was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"YAMATOOOO!" screamed the woman who had just entered the cave, panting.

Rubbing his eyes, Yamato recognized his beloved wife, Princess Tachibana.

Flushed with anger, Benten rose up and lashed out, "HOW DARE YOU ENTER MY CAVE! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!"

Benten began channeling some sort of ominous, green orb of light between her long, slender fingers. Before she could finish, however, Yamato realized that that magic was awfully similar to a curse that he had heard about in the Book of Ancient Wickedness. Shaking off the last feint haziness from his previous enchanted state, he rose up and knocked Benten over, causing her to launch her cursed orb at the ceiling, which ricocheted and forced a blood-curdling scream from the siren before she blacked out cold.

Benten, from the UnTextbook

From that day forward, Yamato never ventured off alone in search of adventure. Whenever he was feeling a little unsure of his place in the world, his beloved wife, the great Princess Tachibana, accompanied him in every one of his outings, hunting creatures or bringing evildoers to justice for their city.

Author's Note: This story is based off of Yamato - The Grotto of Love from the Japanese Mythology unit. I decided I like the main premise of the brave, adventuring getting bored of life at home after things settle down a bit because I think it's relateable. The events are kind of similar, as in Yamato getting lured into Benten's home, but the details are mostly of my creation. In this story, Princess Tachibana becomes the hero by following Yamato into the cave before it's too late.

Bibliography: Stories from Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E.W. and F. Champney. Source.

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part B

The Labors of Yamato - The Grotto of Love

Something about the poem at the beginning of this story is really creepy to me. 

Wow, Yamato is a hard guy to please. Apparently, a princess is only worth it if she's in need of saving. I understand the need to chase some sort of passion, but I don't think it's healthy for danger to be your passion! (Story idea: Yamato tries a bunch of ridiculously dangerous things for no reason, getting increasingly injured while doing them)

"Deathless love" sounds a lot better than "loveless death."

Welp, now Yamato has found a woman who challenges him. I wonder if he's bitten off more than he can chew with this "Golden Apple" business.

The Labors of Yamato - The Golden Apple

I actually really, really enjoyed the verses in this poem-story. The rhymes were very fluid and the story they told was also enjoyable. 

The Labors of Yamato - The Demon Boar

I didn't actually think about it before now, but Yamato is pretty comparable to Heracles. Was there influence between these two stories? 

Ah, well that was kind of anti-climactic, albeit realistic.

The boar story made up for it though. I really liked the random, gory details which contrasted well against Yamato's non-adventure.

The Labors of Yamato - The Grass-Cleaving Sword

All I can think about when I hear the title of the story is The Legend of Zelda, because in the video games Link would constantly cut grass to try and find rupees.

"ghostly sounds"

Good attribution at the end there to Tacibana. She was truly the hero that day!

The Labors of Yamato - The Sacred Sword

Wow, what a terrible guy! Yamato is so mean to Tacibana, despite the fact that she just saved his life. She should be the one running off to chase sirens.

Why would Benten leave the Sacred Sword with a mortal deer? Why wouldn't she just deliver the sword to Susanoo himself? 

The Labors of Yamato - The Dragon

Such a sad story, but mostly because Tacibana sacrificed herself for Yamato. It was a predictable outcome, but it was still sad to see that happen. She was the only character I liked.

The Quest of the Jewel

Here's another story about a quest to return a stolen object taken specifically by Benten. People will do crazy things for love. 

Image from the Golden Apple via the UnTextbook

Bibliography: Stories from Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E.W. and F. Champney. Source.

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part A

Izanagi and Izanami

Like many other myths of creation, the gods represent human beings pretty well in a variety of different ways. The part that struck me this time was Izanami's death by childbirth. Who would think that gods would be capable of dying, let alone in a way that is utterly human?

The marriage scene was very silly to me. Not only was it rooted in traditional gender roles (man speaks first because he is more important yada yada), but also the fact that they redid the whole thing due to superstitions arising from those roles was pretty humorous to me. Could you imagine if that were to really happen at someone's wedding? ("Let's call this off - the groom was led in by his father instead of the bride" tsk tsk)

The Miraculous Mirror

That first paragraph was hilarious! 

It's interesting how Amaterasu and her hand maidens are involved in creating both good and bad things. 

It's interesting to see Amaterasu's reaction to the mirror. It was completely opposite to Narcissus' reaction when he saw his own reflection. Of course, Amaterasu was ignorant to what the mirror was doing, but still.

The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi

Wow, Suanoo can be a real great guy when he's irately chasing his sister out of the kingdom of heaven into a terrible cave!

The Heaven-Descended

"Don't shoot the messenger" wasn't really applied here, I guess. It might not have been his fault though, because nobody told him not to shoot the messenger!

The Fortunate Fish Hook

If the fish hook is past the "bounds of the ocean", where is it? What makes it not ocean? 

Woah, a marriage that was actually based in love! I'm glad to hear that the woman was actually consenting to the marriage, not just "wed" or "taken as a bride" as many of these kinds of stories seem to describe marriage. It was cool to see.

The Labors of Yamato - The Rescue of the Princess

Where did the idea for the mermaid come from? The part about Yamato chasing after the mermaid would make for a nice side story.

Yamato must have had very interesting facial features to be able to pass as a beautiful woman by just wearing a tiara and putting on a woman's clothing!

Fortunate fish hook 

via the UnTextbook

Bibliography: Stories from Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E.W. and F. Champney. Source.

Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins, Part B

Goblins: The Snake's Poison
Swami - swami son with wife named Beauty

Conflict! 

That's some pretty perfect description - like the mourning of a dead partner.

It took him days? He was so grief stricken, you would think he'd jump instantly at the chance to find his wife.

Uh oh.. poor Hariswami.. 

"If you know and do not tell the truth" - seems really odd to me. What reason would the king have for lying? He knows he has to play the goblin's game to get him to come with him. This line just seemed weird to me.

Goblins: The Girl and the Thief

Merchant - Jewel, Wife - Pleasing, Daughter - Pearl

It seems like all the daughters/wives in these stories turn out to be beautiful.

Clever king - but he sounds like he is about to meet some dangerous company. 

Did he really think the thief did not recognize him? He is the king after all.

What? Pearl, no! 

The people in these stories really like to self-sacrifice.

Oh, well goody! All it took for the thief to be a good person was divine intervention.

These riddles are getting lame. It seems like any answer will do, as long as you can somewhat justify it.

Goblins: The General's Wife

There are a lot of king stories.

How kind of him. He wouldn't want to make all those women lovesick.

Wow, he is very committed to ruling his kingdom virtuously. It's too bad, because he might end up alone because of it.

I like the king's answer a lot, actually. Though he kind of underplayed the role of the general, I guess it could be the fact that social norms were different back then. Maybe his servitude was ordinary. However, it is pretty tough to have power and not abuse it, so good on the king as well.

Ahilya Ghat by the Ganges, 

from the UnTextbook

Goblins: The Four Brothers

Wow, I never even considered how old hanging/suicide might be. I wonder who was the first person to die that way?

Why are the younger brothers so wise? 

Ah yes, brothers learning different sciences. This is just like the reading yesterday. 

Where are they learning such crazy "sciences"? Story idea; make more crazy sciences for some brothers or sisters to learn!

What? How could the brother who put the hair/flesh on not know it was a lion? Was it done blindly or something? How skilled were they in this science? I don't like this story.

Goblins: The Old Hermit

That story was just kind of weird. Is the king actually going to die? I didn't think he was actually afraid of the goblin's magic until the end of this story.

Goblins: Father and Son, Daughter and Mother
The description has changed. I feel that something different is about to happen, and it doesn't look good for the king.

"if your faces lose their beauty we won't want to be marry you anymore" - the way that men speak to women in these stories weirds me out!

It doesn't seem like that big of deal for them to switch their original agreement. It's not like it was a business contract, and it makes more sense for the young to marry each other.

Is it not an impossible puzzle? Each of the children would have multiple relations, depending on how you trace it.

Goblins: Conclusion

Yay, happy ending! I rather enjoyed these stories, there's a lot of similarities to them, but some of them were really enjoyable. 

Bibliography: Twenty-two Goblins, translated by Arthur W. Ryder. Source.

Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins, Part A

Introduction

Okay, these characters have interesting names. I wonder if the message of this story is going to have a play on words involved.

King rewarded for his generosity

Ooh, the king thinks that all the fruits have jewels in them. Now he's greedy = bad thing to come

Oh, just kidding. All of the fruits had gems in them. However, I still think something bad is to come out of greed.

This truly is a brave king if he agreed to that so easily.

Interesting. There is some magic involved in this story, and the goblin has yet to prove that he is a good character. I wonder what his story holds.

The Three Lovers

"feasting on the beauty of her face" - kind of a creepy line

Woah. That was sudden!

Jeez, what is going on in this story? People really didn't like crying children back then.

Oh, okay. So all forgiven then? Killing children/people is okay when you can bring them back to life, apparently.

Oooh, here's the dilemma. The king is brave, but is he wise as well?

The answer he gave is interesting, but I'm not so sure that it's true. It must be some sort of cultural behavior that made the answer so obvious and acceptable to the king.

Brave, Wise, Clever

Counselor, wife, daughter = Moonlight

brave, wise, clever

"given" to me - another example of women in the past being treated like objects

I really don't like the answer this time. While it true that the brave man defeated the giant, one could say that he was simply working for someone as a soldier or something.

If there is another similar riddle, I'm going to try and guess the correct answer.

The Girl, Her Husband, and Her Brother

temple for goddess, bath for goddess where people come once a year to bathe

These are some interesting names.

That was a really strange puzzle. The answer seemed too plain, but I guess it only makes sense!

Food, Women, Cotton

Woah, that's pretty intense. As an eldest brother, you would think that he would show some leadership and take the turtle himself.

I don't understand how being a "specialist" in any of those particular domains has to do with carrying a turtle. Are they really that afraid of touching something "slimy"?

Could the hair not have been planted? It could have even been tested to make sure an imprint was left on the third brother's skin. 

Food, Women, Cotton 

from the UnTextbook

The Four Suitors

I wonder why the goblin doesn't want to be taken to the monk. Is he  going to be sacrificed or something like that?

Husband that is good-looking and knows a science

1 - tailor, 5 suits/day, give 1 to god, 1 to brahman, 1 to himself, 1 to wife, 1 to sell for a living.

2 - farmer, understands beasts+birds

3 - soldier, best swordsman

4 - can resurrect dead creatures

I didn't catch that the king was a warrior, or maybe all the kings back then were also warriors? I was honestly thinking that he was going to say the tailor, because he actually provides a service for the wife. Battle/bringing back dead creatures/talking to animals doesn't seem as obviously useful in a day to day life.

It is worth noting that the king is becoming visibly frustrated by the goblin's riddles. Is he about to make a mistake?

The Three Delicate Wives

King with 3 wives - riddle has to deal with the wives?

Bibliography: Twenty-two Goblins, translated by Arthur W. Ryder. Source.

Feedback Focus

1. Reading Out Loud

I really like reading out loud, but sometimes it distracts from the reading's content because I focus on my voice. I'm really into voice work, so this might just be a problem for me. I still think it's a good technique if you really need to focus and slow down.

2. Copy-and-Delete

This technique was a little better than the reading out loud technique in terms of retention with just one read-through because it forced me to think about what had been said at the end of paragraph. I tried this method while reading out loud, and it made the experience even better. I was very aware during the reading.

3. Use a Timer

I usually use timers when I work on homework because I use the Pomodoro technique, which entails 25 minutes of focused work followed by a 5 minute break. This technique works pretty well for me. I think in all honesty, the best idea is to do all three of these techniques simultaneously if possible!

Focused readers by Erik Albers from Wikipedia

Reading Notes: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories, Part B

The Two Brothers

I wonder what the motivations Anpu's wife has to betray Bata. Was she so ashamed of being rejected by him that she decided to make sure he was killed by his own brother? Also, I don't really understand the cultural significance of the raiment. It didn't seem like such a big deal (for both parties).

Here again is another example of a woman being portrayed only as a source of conflict, and then being tossed aside by her husband. Are there stories in Egyptian or other myth that have more favorable women characters? Also, it is worth noting that the two wives are not given names, signaling their lack of importance as characters.

sacred bull (Bata?)

The Book of Thoth

From the first part, it seems like this is going to be a classic story of the young, naive fool who dreams for too much and pays dearly for it. I hope that something different happens, but I don't think it's likely.

I wasn't aware that Nefer-ka-ptah was so skilled in magic. For a story, it would be cool to modernize his quest for a powerful book, but instead of godly powers it could deal with secrets of some famous author or something.

I had no idea that the ancient Egyptians loved beer so much.

These stories read much like a fairy tale, with much parallelism in the sentence structure. 

Bibliography: Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie. Source.

Reading Notes: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories, Part A

Ra and Hathor

Story idea: Apple's users, like the earthly men in the story, have become rather critical of the company. Apple becomes very upset, and believes that they might try to up and leave the company, or maybe just demand that CEO be fired or something, so Apple sends out messengers to go and collect their Apple devices (could be in the terms of service agreement or something). Almost all of the devices have been collected, but the the head of Apple decides that he actually wants Apple to go on living, and no longer fears the users' revolt. (Could be due to a letter sent by a young artists, or a mother talking about how an iPad really helped their kids learn numbers/read/etc.)

Osiris

The interesting thing about this mythology is the gods are really interactive with the humans in a positive way. Osiris and Isis teach the Egyptians about agriculture and how to live peacefully, which is pretty different from the stories in Greek and Roman mythology.

The Green Ring

Bibliography: Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie. Source.

Reading Notes: Aesop (Winter), Part A (Done for E.C.)

Note: I didn't do the regular Reading Notes this week, so I'm doing the reading I started for the E.C. reading.

page 1:

I wonder if the Kid actually planned on distracting the wolf, or if it was by sheer coincidence that he ended up being saved. In any case, the message is one that has been done countless times before, and so it would be pretty easy to write a story based upon this fable.

I like turtles so the second fable made me sad. :(

page 2:

The first fable threw me for a loop. Based on the fables I've read up to this point,  I was sure that the message would be one about foolishness due to the Cock not being careful about where he was crowing.

I could see a story idea being about two friends who take a trip to somewhere they've never been before (Europe, Canada, Rocky Mountains, etc.) and one of them wakes up, like I'm sure most of us do sometimes, and have no idea where he is. Upon waking, he does something foolish, and has to outwit some threat to escape misfortune.

The third fable was short and sweet. I really enjoyed it! Not only have I been that kid, but as an adult it's important to also make sure you're not trying to do too much at once. Not only does it wear you out, but it makes it hard to appreciate the things you are doing, no matter how small they might be.

page 3:

A few story ideas come to mind: teenager who thinks she knows everything, stubborn only child/man/woman who won't listen to a sibling/elder/parent. Really stubbornness applies to a lot of things, and for a lot of people it's easily their worst drawback. We can admit to being wrong, it won't kill us.

The message of this one is a little off, but I do agree with the notion that so many of us think that people care about what we do or say way more than people actually do. It took me a while to realize it, but everyone is their own number one priority.

page 4: 

The third fable is a really good one. People always want to share blame, but shared praise is harder to come by.

page 5:

Story idea: college/high school student who dreams too big, maybe in academics but also maybe in some sort of competition. The story ends well though, as the moral will be that steady, gradual gains are better than getting all at once.

page 6:

I don't really understand the message of the goat story. It reminds me of all the classic tales of star-crossed lovers who can't be with one another because of obstacles.

The story about an ass carrying a load and purposely falling seems very natural to me, especially with young people who are learning how to live.

page 7:

It's amazing how well these stories convey the simplest of human tendencies, like backstabbing.

page 8:

I didn't know that wolves ate dogs..

Also I like the message a whole lot: "Take what you can get when you can get it."

page 9:

There are a lot of stories about wolves. I wonder what Aesop's fascination with them is?

I guess they represent a good villain, but I'm curious as to the origin of that characteristic.

A story idea for this would be a modern day person in some occupation who tries to do too much, but ends up foolishly stepping out of the bounds of his expertise.

The Wolf and the Ass, image via the UnTextbook

page 10: 

Bibliography: The Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter. Source.

Story: Celeste the Best

Celeste was 17-years old, about to begin her first day at a new school. She was a fair-haired brunette with slightly tanned skin. She wasn't beautiful, but rather average in just about every way. Average height, average weight, average body-type. She wouldn't stand out at all, in fact, if it weren't for one little thing. 

Celeste was extraordinarily fascinating. And because of this, there wasn't a person in her new school that didn't want to be her best friend. She was not only kinder than Mother Theresa herself, but her laugh was infectious - like that of one's first child. She was sporty, musically-inclined, and a die-heard computer gamer. All of the kids in her new school gossiped about her, and soon her popularity shot up like a rocket.

Celeste however, was completely unaware of how well she was getting along with everyone. She thought she had a few friends, but in actuality, her high school claim to fame flew completely under her radar. She probably should have suspected something when her phone's memory was completely filled up by the end of the first week, but her ignorance continued for several weeks thereafter.

Her ignorance was, in this case, bliss. 

About halfway into the semester, Celeste's Speech teacher assigned her and her classmates a project which would forever change her life. The project involved partnering up with a classmate and taking turns interviewing one another. The entire class jumped to try and partner up with Celeste, so the teacher Mr. Hull was forced to assign partners. Jared, one of the wide receivers on the school football team, was to work with Celeste. 

After school, Celeste and Jared rode back to Celeste's place, chatting merrily about how college football was far more entertaining than the NFL. They worked on their mock interviews, both helping one another decide on questions, designing their fake companies, and how they were going to videotape the whole ordeal. 

Two hours later, after they had finished recording, Jared suggested that they watch their interview to make sure that everyone turned out okay. Though she didn't know it yet, this was about to be Celeste's greatest mistake. 

Jared pressed the play button. Upon seeing herself answer the first of Jared's questions, Celeste was struck by her prompt response, melodic voice, and charming dimple-ridden grin. This couldn't be me in the video, could it? I'm so... so... amazing! This had to have been dumb luck, or something, right? 

But Celeste wasn't lucky, because her reaction was of equal shock and awe when she saw herself answer the rest of the interview questions. 

Cartoon girl, image by 

Pixabay user Clcker-Free-Vector-Images

"So, what'd you think? I thought we did a good job.", said Jared as the video ended. 

Stunned, Celeste took a moment, then responded sharply, "I was great! I can't believe it's really me in that video." 

Shutting off the camera, Jared replied, "Uh, yeah, haha... you did do well. Well listen, I'll go ahead and upload it to the school website, and I'll see you - " 

"NO WAIT! Can I see it again? I just really, really want to watch myself be interviewed again."

"Uhhh... ", uttered Jared, dumbfounded.

"You know what? You should just let me upload the video. I know how to work the camera software anyway, plus it's already here! Don't you see, it makes sense!", Celeste said, pleadingly.

Jared agreed hesitantly, but gave in. After he left, Celeste ripped the SD card from the video camera and shoved it roughly into the computer's slot. Clicking furiously, she demanded that her computer's media player read faster than it was physically capable of doing. Her impatience subsided when the clip rolled, and she saw herself answer the first question again. Then she watched it again. And again. And again. Celeste was stuck now in a vortex of boundless self-interest that had built up secretly due to her neglect of it. Now it was an uncontrollable beast, unwavering despite the numerous phone calls and text messages from Celeste's classmates that now went ignored, as did everything that did not involve Celeste or her extraordinary personality. 

--

Author's Note: I decided to do this story because narcissism is such a well-known concept in our society, and it isn't always meant in the same way as the original story described it. Narcissus was obsessed with his own physical beauty, but in this story, I explored a version where the main character falls in love with her own personality, not appearance.

Bibliography: "Narcissus sees himself and falls in love" from Ovid's Metamorphoses, translation by Tony Kline. Source.

Learning Challenge: Trying the Happiness Jar

This week, I'm going to be doing the happiness jar challenge. 

I don't want to do daily updates, because I don't want to look back on each day until the final day. So next Sunday, I will post the results of this challenge here in an edited section of this blog post. 

Happiness jar challenge, 

via the Learning by HEART blog

The happiness jar challenge was pretty fun! I will admit it was hard to keep up with, but looking back was nice because I remember a lot of good moments throughout the week that I probably wouldn't have thought about otherwise. 

Growth Mindset: The 30 Day Challenge and Failing Superman

This week I decided to watch two videos to learn more about the growth mindset. From the Growth Mindset playlist, I watched Trying something new for 30 days and Failing Superman.

I chose the first video because I've heard about various challenges to try new things, but I never actually try anything new. The speaker's message was simply, encouraging, and applicable to a number of things. I have written down a few things to try over the next 30 days thanks to this video.

The second video was pretty interesting as well, because education is something that I've thought a lot about. I don't find a lot of value in traditional education, because a lot of what I've learned that has been useful to me I've learned on my own. That's not to brag, but merely to echo the creator of the video's viewpoint that we all are interested in different things and we learn in different ways. It is rare to find cases where the public education system has taken care of a student's learning needs perfectly. I'm not sure what the solution is because it's a rather complex problem and we've been rooted in the same curriculum for so long, but I am optimistic that people like the creator of the video will be able to carve out a system that works for all of our future students.

Studious Superman, photo by Flickr user T K

Feedback Thoughts

Feedback is such an interesting thing, because it, at least in my experience, has such a bad reputation, but is truly so good for us as individuals. I'm very interested in self development, so a lot of the concepts talked about in the articles I read were not new to me, but it's very important to keep them in mind, so being refreshed on these core ideas of feedback was nice.

I'm a lot better at giving feedback than receiving it, and part of the reason is that I'm pretty sure I was raised as a narcissistic child - at least to some degree. I am the sixth of seven children, so it was pretty natural for me to make comparisons to the achievements of my siblings. It was a long time coming, but I've grown up a lot since then after having a few rough breaks. Like many others, college has taught me a lot about myself that I didn't realize as a child. 

The feedback from this course is going to be difficult to accept, but I'm going to try to do my best to absorb as much from it and learn to improve myself as a writer and storyteller. The creative arts don't come naturally to me, but I think I'll learn to appreciate them a lot more once I've gone through some of the difficulties that artists have to deal with - albeit on a much smaller scale.

Photo of someone rock climbing by Maria Ly 

via Wikimedia Commons