" We knocked the bastard off "

" you don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things --
to compete.You can be just an ordinary chap,sufficiently motivated
to reach challenging goals.The intense effort,the giving of everything
you've got, is a very pleasant bonus. "
" people do not decide to become extraordinary.
They decide to accomplish extraordinary things. "

" It is not the mountain we conquer,but ourselves. "
-- Edmund Hillary

 

Socrates said ... " An unexamined life is not worth living. "

However.
" Finish each day and be done with it.You have done what you could; some
blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day ; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit
to be encumbered with your old nonsense. "
" Character is that which can do without success. "
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Find your mountain and climb steady.

 

And now they lead whole strings of people up it every day.
Not to run down the accomplishment, just saying how strange that seems

 

Fascinating the way humanity operates.Now it's not nearly the life/death slog
it once was.Mt.Everest used to be THE most feared and deadly climb known to man.
It was surely capable of automatic death.Anything above 26,000 feet is approaching
death.The air at the altitude is devoid of much oxygen molecules.So one has to
breath often times 6 X's harder.It's like running a Marathon with a thick pillow over yer
mouth.Obviously Not for just anyone.A special breed of human adventurer is demanded.
One willing to almost totally absolve their surroundings and dig deep inside for needed
strength and security.At high altitude one lacking sufficient oxygen gets dreamy and
tired.As those blinded in a Desert seeing a mirage.So an iron-willed constitution is mandatory.
Watching these Mt.Everest tours,as if well clothed penguins spoils the spoils.
The real Winners of Mt.Everest are relegated and diminished.
The real effort is reduced.Whole Nations { like Great Britain } took great pride
and expense to achieve the conquest of the Highest place on earth.The most
unforgiving and damnably desolate.

" It's magnificient,Ambrose,but it's damnably foolish. "
-- E.Phillips Oppenheim { The Kingdom of the Blind }