So more than 40 mountaineers attempting to summit Mount Everest passed by a guy who was in obvious distress; basically the man was dying. The passers-by were too focused/selfish/busy/"inexperienced" to aid the 34 year old and subsequently, he died.
Let me get this straight. I want to scale the highest mountain in the world, in one of the most spiritual places on the globe, and on my way I encounter someone who is in dire need of some human care. Call me "namby pamby", but I can't honestly imagine enjoying the view from the summit of Everest if I had to banish the thought and image of a dying man, gasping for oxygen from my recent memory. That's just my pragmatic reason for altruism -- guilt taints my ability to enjoy the thing I am working for if I was a bastard is acquiring it.
On a higher level, a metaphysical one if you will, it seems quite clear that the scaling of Everest is as much a symbolic effort one as a physical one. The irony of attempting to reach humanity's highest peak (literally) while being blind to all that one encounters on that journey is um.. gross (for lack of a better word, as I'm somewhat disturbed by this story). In other words, if in an effort to prove humanity's triumph over nature, you step over someone's dying body, methinks you've missed the boat.
Let's imagine the setting, shall we?
[Lights come up in a living room with a warm fireplace burning. On the mantle is a photo of a mountaineer, ice frozen into his face and beard, the Roof of the World in all its majestic glory spreads out down below in the background]
Guest: Wow! That's an amazing photo.
Mountaineer in Photo: Yes, that's me at the summit of Mount Everest.
Guest: That's incredible! You scaled the highest mountain in the world? I can't believe it! What a wonderful, triumphant, life-altering experience it must have been!
Mountaineer: Yes, it was.. Almost didn't make it though. This dying guy was blocking my path. Quite treacherous, had to like climb up around him.
Guest: Er.. Um, that photo sucks.
Some background:
I'm coming down off disc 2 of Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, where he's interviewed by Bill Moyers, which I would say is a must-see for anyone who ponders things greater in scope than the daily crud offered up by the media.
Mr. Campbell can relate in great detail, the things common to all humans - the human experience - through the stories and mythologies of all sorts of cultures over the course of history. It's pretty amazing actually. His definition of a Hero (and the one that has been described countless times in countless myths) is one who without thinking would put his/her life on the line to save another life.
I think he'd be somewhat dismayed by this news story.
1 comment:
oooh, I've been wanting to read more Joseph Campbell. Lucky.
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