Just the very act of living each day and surviving in this mad world is a triumph of no little matter. It gets harder as you get older and more tired, the mountain a little steeper, the summit a little higher each day, but each day by a greater effort you manage to get to the top.
And the view from the summit…
Aw, c’mon Tim, you’re only halfway up the mountain!
Actually, what I mean by the above, is that in life you continually climb to what you think is the summit, but when you reach it you see it is a false summit, that when you look up you see, to your frustration and disappointment, the enormous ridge still stretching way up high above you and no crest in sight. You gradually realize, with each ridge and “summit” surmounted, that you will never get to the top, that there IS NO “top”, that there will always be more summits above, and as you go higher, it gets colder, the oxygen gets thinner and the daylight hours get shorter.
The realization that there is no top on your mountain of life, that there will always be more summits, means you have to make a decision. This will almost inevitably mean you decide to stop climbing and try to get down as best you can. You turn very reluctantly back, but as you do so and look back down the huge mountain you have climbed, you instantly see in the snow countless steps of your footprints on all the false or lesser summits you have conquered to get this far, and you realize with great satisfaction that actually your efforts have not been in vain.
THE MOUNTAIN OF LIFE
