TBG Paul, I live by rules of thumb, familiar, comforting too. We all do. It would be impossible to invent each movement at the time. We would remain learning to walk all our lives. But I try to be open minded. The funny and sad thing is, some of the closest things to us, having the biggest impact on our lives, are the hardest things to check the validity of. But we know we are floundering.
I suppose that's why we are all here, looking for points of view, ideas, security, love, and because of "fear of flying", fear of our shares going down, fear of living alone in the night, dying alone in the night, at the top of the world.
Doug Hansen and his Kiwi friend, Rob Hall, and the less newsworthy people, had an impact on me too - and I suppose many people, which is why the big newsworthiness. One of my cousins, who used to mountain climb, had a son fall off a mountain, probably Mt Cook, years ago. Sir Edmund Hillary lives just up the road from us. Melissa [youngest] went and got his autograph one day. His son turned back alone from a group which carried on to their deaths on K2 about 3 years ago. They got blown off the mountain in deteriorating weather. He described how on his retreat [a true Goofi - not the lemming leap for him] he was hanging on a rope in the middle of nowhere with a swirling storm around him. Rob Hall didn't make it. Neither did Doug Hansen.
Maurice, NGW OMR [I went for a walk up One Tree Hill last night after reading your post - it is my own private little point of view, looking out over Mangere, Auckland and my life.] |
