That a humanoid god willed all this into existence simply to glorify himself -a bit too egotistically human- and or for us, his greatest creation, and our pleasure, use or misuse, seems not either to fit with the way I perceive the world while living close to it here at Little Five Lakes. “How can I claim to a greater importance than these alpine flowers, than anything that lives here, or even than the very rocks which eventually become the nourishing soil from which it all has to start? The existence of souls in men? And who can tell me the souls do not take up residence in plants and animals, and even these waters and rocky peaks? A higher evolution for the souls in men? So does that make us more important?Įverything has its place, everything supports everything else, everything is important to itself- to its own development- and to that which it supports. That is what life means and what life is for.” We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy.Īnd joy is, after all, the end of life. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. “The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, “What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?” and my answer must at once be, “It is no use.” There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever.
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