I came up with this when being told that I was not a martial artist/historical swordsman for reasons X, Y, and Z. I came up with it to show how dumb the crap I was being told was. Can you give me feedback?
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Imagine that you are in
Yosemite Valley.
And in this Valley we find upon the cliff, 300 feet up, a
sport climber.
20 ft away we have a
trad climber.
And 20 ft beyond him we have a
free solo climber.
All three are sending their individual routes.
The Free Soloist turns to the Trad guy and says "Your not a real rock climber because you use protection like cams, nuts, and ropes. If you were a REAL rock climber you would only need a chalk bag, shoes, and your own will."
The Trad guy turns to the Sport climber and say's "Your not a real rock climber, because you clip in to bolts that are pre-set, and carry no more protection than the quick draws you need to use on those bolts. If you were a REAL rock climber you would climb unbolted routes and use cam's, and nuts to keep yourself safe."
The Sport climber says "What the hell?". He then looks up, down, left, right , and behind him. He sees the 300 foot drop, he sees the rock to which he holds himself, and he sees that all three of them are upon the same face and climbing the same rock. At which point he shrug's his shoulders, and continues up upon his way.
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Did that make sense to you? Did you see the point I was making?
-Ivan