I used to dread the annual day in grade school when they tested all the girls and boys on their physical fitness, like how many pull-ups and pushups you could do—Pull-ups. Zero…Pushups. One. But the thing I remember most was being asked to climb a rope that hung from ceiling to floor in our grade school gymnasium. That rope was like the main attraction in the Big Top at the circus. I mean, everyone could see if you could climb that rope or not. Not like over at the pull-up station. Pull-ups were kind of off to the side, against the wall. No one really noticed if you couldn’t do a single pull up. But sure as hell everyone knew if you couldn’t climb that rope! That rope was the thing of elementary school nightmares, when your whole vulnerable grade-school self could be stripped naked in a single moment, snickered at, pitied, reduced to nothing more than a rope-climbing loser. And if that … [continue reading...] about The Stories We Tell Ourselves