I read a fascinating article last night titled, “The Killing Peak,” by Matthew Power, in Men’s Journal.
The intro begins,
“K2, the world’s second-highest summit, is the true climber’s mountain, more challenging and dangerous than Everest—as the world learned this August, when 11 climbers perished within a span of 30 hours. The inside story of what went wrong...”
I’ve always been intrigued by what drives terrain adventurers to extremes that endanger life and limb in order to reach a mountain top or deep into the Antarctica, or to whatever earthly challenge calls them. I certainly understand the desire to discover new places and do what has not been done before. I like to do the same in my work as a metaphysician. But I've also found it helpful to study why some explorers are consistently successful, and others perish in short order. What lessons can I learn from their experiences, I ask, that can be applied to my own metaphysical adventuring?
There are many lessons to learn in this article, for it spells out many of the mistakes and miscalculations the climbers made last August on K2. Errors that could have been avoided if sound reasoning had prevailed.
One of the most interesting facts to me was that carefully laid out plans had been prepared ahead of time, but several members of the party of 20 that ascended the slope August 1, didn’t follow through with their obligations. One group didn’t bring enough rope. Another group brought rope, but it was poor quality. They went up anyway. Through The Bottleneck, plans had been made to ensure the rope would get them to the top, but the plans weren’t followed. They ran out of rope when they needed it most.
One man, a world class climber, had set out very early in the morning, and made it to summit by 2:30 and headed back. On the way down, he passed the others, who were way behind schedule, and told them to turn around and go back. They would never make it up and back in time, he warned. The others ignored him and went anyway, only to perish because of their blind human will. There were trained Sherpas in the group who perished striving to save the inexperienced climbers who lost footings, got tangled in ropes and caught in avalanches. It is a sad story on one hand, but very instructive on the other.
As I read the account, I remembered Jesus wise instruction,
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?...Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Luke
I read in these words counsel to prepare ahead of time. One must not be naïve about the odds stacked against him when going out to battle an enemy or build a tower for a purpose.
I think about the economic and housing fears sweeping the globe today. Could the same lesson be learned there? I ask. Did there need to be better planning to prevent “towers” from falling that we see littering the economic landscape today? … the “towers” of the mortgage and banking industry, highly leveraged houses and commercial properties, and who knows what may fall next week…
The wisdom and foresight of Jesus is incredibly deep. He had words for every kind of crisis humanity will ever face. And simple words, at that. There is nothing complicated about living and planning in an intelligent way that brings about good results.
I agree, it’s hard at times. We all have our opportunities to grow and improve! But the wisdom is in place and available to learn and benefit from that gets us through the tough times and preserves enough space and room to gather our resources back together again, and begin plan B if plan A didn’t work out.
Many of the climbers would likely have been saved if they would have admitted that they weren’t prepared, were willing to go back to camp, regroup, and try again later. But their fear of being cast as failures, or not having another chance, blinded their reason and caused them to keep on going.
Hindsight is so good! And it’s easy to say “Should have, could have…” after the fact. But again, we can learn from other’s experiences and prevent the same errors from being repeated.
Before embarking on a grand adventure, whether it’s a terrestrial, financial, relationship or career type of activity, we can count the cost ahead of time, and be sure we have the resources, understanding and ability we need to get to summit as planned. And if not, we stay put, remain patient, and keep growing in understanding and ability until we are ready and able to succeed. Then it’s time to climb!
Showing posts with label preparation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label preparation. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Always prepared
Yesterday, we stopped at the local fire station to borrow a life jacket for a river outing my family was taking that afternoon. The fire department loans out jackets to community members as a public service and promotion of safety.
After a very successful and happy time on the river with my wife and teenagers, I stopped at the station on the way home to return the preserver. As I walked through the station to find a fireman, I was impressed at the ready state of their equipment.
The doors to the fire trucks were wide open. Jackets, helmets, boots, bags of equipment and more, were in well placed positions for the men and women to grab on the run and not waste a second thinking about how to prepare for a call.
I thought, “Wow!” What if we were all as mentally prepared to respond to calls for spiritual help as these firemen were ready to respond to fires?
For instance, have you ever noticed a problem in your family that needed healing, but said, “I’ll get to it later?” For a fireman, that delay is not good enough. It could mean the difference between a house burning down or a little damage in the kitchen. In serious circumstances, it could mean the difference between saving a life or not.
Have you ever walked by a suffering invalid and not thought much about their pain because you were preoccupied with something else? As I write this, I ask, isn’t the person’s suffering the equivalent of a burning fire in your local community that needs to be put out to prevent further suffering?
Hmmm...I found much to think about after my short stroll by the fire engine with the open doors...
Again, I asked, have I ever procrastinated praying about problems in my life that needed healing now? Yes, to be honest. Isn't that similar to letting a spark grow into a flame, into a fire, and then into a full blown blaze? I pondered. A ready fireman would not approve of any type of delay, ever! He wants the fire out as soon as possible, because he knows what happens when a flame is allowed to find more fuel.
It’s amazing how many lessons one can learn from walking 50 feet through a fire station.
I resolved to work on “keeping my doors” open like the firemen had their truck doors open this afternoon—ready for them to take their seat and respond to the calls for help without delay.
It sounds like a safe way to protect a community—and in reference to our discussion above—any community of thought that we circulate in.
Hope you had a happy 4th...
After a very successful and happy time on the river with my wife and teenagers, I stopped at the station on the way home to return the preserver. As I walked through the station to find a fireman, I was impressed at the ready state of their equipment.
The doors to the fire trucks were wide open. Jackets, helmets, boots, bags of equipment and more, were in well placed positions for the men and women to grab on the run and not waste a second thinking about how to prepare for a call.
I thought, “Wow!” What if we were all as mentally prepared to respond to calls for spiritual help as these firemen were ready to respond to fires?
For instance, have you ever noticed a problem in your family that needed healing, but said, “I’ll get to it later?” For a fireman, that delay is not good enough. It could mean the difference between a house burning down or a little damage in the kitchen. In serious circumstances, it could mean the difference between saving a life or not.
Have you ever walked by a suffering invalid and not thought much about their pain because you were preoccupied with something else? As I write this, I ask, isn’t the person’s suffering the equivalent of a burning fire in your local community that needs to be put out to prevent further suffering?
Hmmm...I found much to think about after my short stroll by the fire engine with the open doors...
Again, I asked, have I ever procrastinated praying about problems in my life that needed healing now? Yes, to be honest. Isn't that similar to letting a spark grow into a flame, into a fire, and then into a full blown blaze? I pondered. A ready fireman would not approve of any type of delay, ever! He wants the fire out as soon as possible, because he knows what happens when a flame is allowed to find more fuel.
It’s amazing how many lessons one can learn from walking 50 feet through a fire station.
I resolved to work on “keeping my doors” open like the firemen had their truck doors open this afternoon—ready for them to take their seat and respond to the calls for help without delay.
It sounds like a safe way to protect a community—and in reference to our discussion above—any community of thought that we circulate in.
Hope you had a happy 4th...
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Avoid the blindness of materialism
While headed to Yellowstone Park for a vacation, my family stopped at the Lewis and Clark caverns in southern Montana. Wow! What an incredible panorama of rock formations these caves have to offer. If you’re ever driving through the area, I highly recommend taking the tour.
At one point in the tour, our group was 325 feet below the surface of where we entered the caverns. It’s an amazing and long winding trip that ta
kes one through several runs, cathedral rooms, down beaver alley (a sit down on your bottom and slip down the narrow glistening smooth rock-slide that has been shaped to the angular outline of the human buttocks from much use), to the pristine pool of water, to hundred of stalactites, stalagmites, columns, slow flow water, bacon, water falls and much more.
In one room, as typical with most cave tours, the guide had us turn off all lights and cover all luminescent objects, including the blinking lights on kid’s sneakers. When the room went pitch dark, everyone oohed and awed at how dense the darkness was. You could not see your hand in front of your eyes, it was so pitch black. Then our leader lighted a single candle in an old-fashioned mining lantern, and she told us the story of Ralph Pierny (sp?).
Ralph had been a CCC (civil conservation corp) worker back in the 1930s when the cave was being prepared for tours. Ralph had other plans though, that stepped out of the bounds of his responsibilities. He was going to steal some of the stalactite formations to take back home to Ohio and sell for personal profit.
One Friday, after work was finished for the week, he snuck back into the Cavern alone to loot his booty. Deep in the Caverns, busily about his dishonest deed, the single candle he had brought with him burned out. And there he stood in absolute darkness with no other means of light.
The guide explained that the human mind cannot compute darkness and begins to hallucinate after a period of time. We all tried to imagine what we would do if stuck in that cavern 300 feet below the surface of the ground with absolutely no light.
In the dark, we could not see anything. We didn’t know what direction to turn, where the alley out was located, what rocks to avoid tripping on, what holes in the ground to avoid. We couldn’t do anything. We’d be stuck, maybe forever! And that’s exactly the situation that Ralph found himself.
Three days passed for Ralph, until Monday morning when roll call was taken outside, and the work party realized Ralph was missing. They sent a search party into the cave, and found him alive, a bit dehydrated, but otherwise, quite fine. Ralph confessed his criminal intent and said he never wanted to experience that again. At times he was lying on the floor and thought he was standing up, the darkness was so confusing, he relayed.
I pondered the guide’s statement of “the human mind cannot compute darkness,” for days afterward.
I thought about different kinds of darkness the human mind often faces other than pitch black in a cave, like immorality, greed, and self-centeredness.
How was Ralph so stupid to take only one candle, I wondered? I decided it was because he was blinded by his dishonest intent. And this is true with all crimes. The criminal eventually, if not from the start, makes major errors in judgments and calculation because he is walking in mental blindness to some degree.
I thought about the blindness of dense sensualism--thought so engrossed in physical sensation that it loses touch with Spirit. I considered the blindness of selfishness, hate, anger, rampant consumerism, and materialism, the belief of living in matter. When thought is absorbed into the belief that happiness, life, mind, and substance is in the flesh, it loses touch with reality, and starts floundering around as if in darkness, just like Ralph trying to find his way out of the cave without light. He could not.
We need light to find direction and stay alive, I concluded. We need a shining hope outside of ourselves to survive.
Ralph could not save himself. He needed help.
We need help too. We need God to save us from the darkness of mortality. Christ is the light God sent to deliver us from evil, and Christian Science is the Christ-light shining brilliantly today leading mankind out of the pit of error into the glorious dawn of Truth.
I’m grateful to know my Light. I’m grateful to know my Light will never burn out or forsake me. I’m grateful to know the Light is wherever I am, even before I get there, and will never fail to lead me to where I need to be.
The story of Ralph Pierny has been a powerful teaching tool for our children who heard and experienced the account firsthand on the cavern tour. My wife and I quickly jumped on the opportunity to illustrate the various types of darkness for them to avoid in coming decades as they learn to lead ethical and spiritually progressive lives.
I will not soon forget the saga of Ralph Pierny either!
At one point in the tour, our group was 325 feet below the surface of where we entered the caverns. It’s an amazing and long winding trip that ta
kes one through several runs, cathedral rooms, down beaver alley (a sit down on your bottom and slip down the narrow glistening smooth rock-slide that has been shaped to the angular outline of the human buttocks from much use), to the pristine pool of water, to hundred of stalactites, stalagmites, columns, slow flow water, bacon, water falls and much more.In one room, as typical with most cave tours, the guide had us turn off all lights and cover all luminescent objects, including the blinking lights on kid’s sneakers. When the room went pitch dark, everyone oohed and awed at how dense the darkness was. You could not see your hand in front of your eyes, it was so pitch black. Then our leader lighted a single candle in an old-fashioned mining lantern, and she told us the story of Ralph Pierny (sp?).
Ralph had been a CCC (civil conservation corp) worker back in the 1930s when the cave was being prepared for tours. Ralph had other plans though, that stepped out of the bounds of his responsibilities. He was going to steal some of the stalactite formations to take back home to Ohio and sell for personal profit.
One Friday, after work was finished for the week, he snuck back into the Cavern alone to loot his booty. Deep in the Caverns, busily about his dishonest deed, the single candle he had brought with him burned out. And there he stood in absolute darkness with no other means of light.
The guide explained that the human mind cannot compute darkness and begins to hallucinate after a period of time. We all tried to imagine what we would do if stuck in that cavern 300 feet below the surface of the ground with absolutely no light.
In the dark, we could not see anything. We didn’t know what direction to turn, where the alley out was located, what rocks to avoid tripping on, what holes in the ground to avoid. We couldn’t do anything. We’d be stuck, maybe forever! And that’s exactly the situation that Ralph found himself.
Three days passed for Ralph, until Monday morning when roll call was taken outside, and the work party realized Ralph was missing. They sent a search party into the cave, and found him alive, a bit dehydrated, but otherwise, quite fine. Ralph confessed his criminal intent and said he never wanted to experience that again. At times he was lying on the floor and thought he was standing up, the darkness was so confusing, he relayed.
I pondered the guide’s statement of “the human mind cannot compute darkness,” for days afterward.
I thought about different kinds of darkness the human mind often faces other than pitch black in a cave, like immorality, greed, and self-centeredness.
How was Ralph so stupid to take only one candle, I wondered? I decided it was because he was blinded by his dishonest intent. And this is true with all crimes. The criminal eventually, if not from the start, makes major errors in judgments and calculation because he is walking in mental blindness to some degree.
I thought about the blindness of dense sensualism--thought so engrossed in physical sensation that it loses touch with Spirit. I considered the blindness of selfishness, hate, anger, rampant consumerism, and materialism, the belief of living in matter. When thought is absorbed into the belief that happiness, life, mind, and substance is in the flesh, it loses touch with reality, and starts floundering around as if in darkness, just like Ralph trying to find his way out of the cave without light. He could not.
We need light to find direction and stay alive, I concluded. We need a shining hope outside of ourselves to survive.
Ralph could not save himself. He needed help.
We need help too. We need God to save us from the darkness of mortality. Christ is the light God sent to deliver us from evil, and Christian Science is the Christ-light shining brilliantly today leading mankind out of the pit of error into the glorious dawn of Truth.
I’m grateful to know my Light. I’m grateful to know my Light will never burn out or forsake me. I’m grateful to know the Light is wherever I am, even before I get there, and will never fail to lead me to where I need to be.
The story of Ralph Pierny has been a powerful teaching tool for our children who heard and experienced the account firsthand on the cavern tour. My wife and I quickly jumped on the opportunity to illustrate the various types of darkness for them to avoid in coming decades as they learn to lead ethical and spiritually progressive lives.
I will not soon forget the saga of Ralph Pierny either!
The error, which says that Soul is in body, Mind is in matter, and good is in evil, must unsay it and cease from such utterances; else God will continue to be hidden from humanity, and mortals will sin without knowing that they are sinning, will lean on matter instead of Spirit, stumble with lameness, drop with drunkenness, consume with disease, — all because of their blindness, their false sense concerning God and man. Mary Baker Eddy
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Are your fields prepared?
Two farmers prayed to God for rain to water their crops. One farmer prepared his fields for an expected downpour. The other did not. Which farmer had faith that his prayers would be answered?
I was struck by the below passage in Hebrews on the role faith plays in prayers that bear fruit.
“By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. ‘They looked all over and couldn’t find him because God had taken him.’ We know on the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken ‘he pleased God.’
“It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.” The Message
Have you prepared your fields today? Do you expect your prayers to be answered?
