Erik Weihenmeyer

Last night, Erik Weihenmeyer gave a talk in Chapin Hall about his experiences with blindness, climbing, goal setting, and life in general. I was impressed by the turnout, and Chapin was pretty much filled.

The talk was good, and the pictures were amazing. The team that climbed Everest in 2001 also included the oldest person (64) to make it to the top.

After switching to the next slide, Erik would ask, "Is this the one of me in front of a mountain?" or "Is this a bridge?" This would cause the audience to murmer either "no" or "yes" in kind of an "i know you're blind so i'm going to try to say this in a way that is helpful but that doesn't make it seem like i'm telling you something that is extremely obvious to me" type of voice.

I thought a certain portion of Erik's talk was a bit out of line. After talking about his fight against blindness, he became a bit coarse. "Make blindness your bitch, before it makes you its bitch." Actually, he didn't say this, but it covers the basic idea.

Actually, he said that it is important to develop an overall vision from which you can create life goals. Accomplishing these goals involves surrounding yourself with those who believe and trust you. His talk was very team and community oriented.

And . . . it is warmer today than was predicted yesterday. 50 degrees and sunny.