The Impossible Mountain
The mountain is impossible to climb. It simply cannot be done. This particular mountain – the “insane mountain”. Or, you might call it Crazy Mountain.
When asked why he chose to devote so much of his life and
endure so much pain and trial, climbing Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hilary
answered, “Because it is there.”
What is there to understand about this? What if Hilary’s mountain was impossible to climb? If every time he tried to climb it, he failed,
like Sisyphus, he got nearly to the top and he died. Only to be reborn at the bottom and be
compulsively driven to climb it again.
But, every time he got older, he became more disabled by
each effort. Failing over and over. The pain of each failure building on the
last, until every step, even the very first step of each new effort, was beyond
what he could endure. However he cannot
stop trying.
Why?
Why doesn’t he just quit?
Why doesn’t he just stop trying?
What if we accept that a person’s life is like that of a
tree? The tree sets down roots and grows
upward toward the sunlight. The tree
will continue to grow until it dies. The
tree knows nothing else – but to grow.
The only knowledge the tree possesses is to grow. During its life cycle, the tree will devote
some time and energy to fulfilling its role in reproducing, but even that is
only a required part of its genetic growing
program.
Believing in anything other than growing is beyond the ability of a tree. As human beings, sentient beings, the belief
is that humans have some kind of free
will. Well … compared to a tree,
humans do have apparent choices. The great
bugaboo of genetics still has far greater power than anything humans
might hope to wield.
And if that genetic programming determines we are to spend
our lives climbing an impossible mountain,
that programming cannot be undone. It is
also believed that all impossible mountains are obvious. I mean, who can miss a mountain? You go around it or over it or, possibly,
between mountains. But they are right there. Right?
Assume that one mountain, a very special mountain, is only
obvious to one special person. What if Sir
Edmund Hilary was the only person who could see Mt. Everest? (Also know as Sagarmatha by the country in which it exists – Nepal)
This must seem like such a silly argument. Doesn’t it?
Of course we all know about Everest and Hilary. Blah di blah … I am postulating a theory however. And this theory says that only Hilary could
see Everest. And he was programmed to
spend his life climbing it and he was also programmed to fail every time. To him, to
Sir Edmund Hilary, HIS mountain was there and he was GOING to climb it.
This is Crazy Mountain.
However, Sir Edmund had to live in this world. He had to get a
driver’s license, get along with other people, avoid breaking the law, earn a
living. All of these things require
living within society with other people. And whenever he was asked, “What ‘cha
doin’.” He knew he couldn’t say, “Well,
I’m getting ready to climb Mt. Everest again.”
“Climb what?”
“I have to climb that huge mountain right there (pointing at
Mt. Everest).”
“What mountain?
Where?”
“That one. Right
there. It’s huge. Can’t you see it?”
“Sir Ed. Have you ever
considered therapy?”
So Sir Ed keeps it to himself. Bearing the burden of his life compulsion
inside just to keep from being locked up.
Or worse, shunned as if he had the dreaded
lampapoo plague.
If he had had his leg chewed off by a mountain wolf, the
sympathy and understanding would be immense.
Most probably even if he said it was on his mountain nobody else could
see. The fact that his leg was obviously
gone would prove he must be telling the truth. Hundreds of other mountain climbers and
adventurer types would take off looking for Sir Ed’s mountain.
Is this a ridiculous concept? How many people absolutely believe and spend
enormous of time and resources looking for Sasquatch,
the Yeti or, I dunno … the jackalope?
One man’s Sasquatch
is another man’s invisible mountain. Why is the first acceptable and the second not acceptable? Why is it acceptable to be missing a leg, but
not to believe in the necessity of climbing a mountain no one else can
see?
If a person spends a life time being kind, even loving,
honest and productive – how is this totally disqualified because of their
invisible mountain?
Who is crazier, the ones who see what can be done, what might
be done that no one else can see? Or,
the ones who simply refuse to see that anything can be done that they cannot see?
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Dale Clarence Peterson © 2014
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