Back to Base Camp
Post a responseIn the adventure sport of mountain climbing, there is the axiom that once you ascend the mountain, you’re only halfway to your goal. You’ve got to make it back down the mountain. It’s treacherous. And when many of the deadly mountaineering accidents occur.
In Deep Survival, Laurence Gonzales writes, “[D]escending is technically more difficult than ascending. During the climb up, your foot is planted before your body weight is shifted. The opposite is true on descent, and it’s less stable. Descent … is a controlled fall.”
The second half of life may be like descending the mountain. What makes it treacherous is the inevitable suffering: the death of parents, the disappointment of children, divorce, cancer, career frustration, a retirement that doesn’t meet expectations.
No matter how high the climb in one’s thirties and forties, no one makes it back to base camp safely. The climb ends badly for everyone.
Fr. Richard Rohr has, in my estimation, done the best thinking on the spiritual journey of men and women in the second half of life. For many men to know God profoundly, the trick is giving up the illusion of power. A friend calls it the Mirage. And then finding God, perhaps for the first time, in listening to and serving others. For some women, says Rohr, the challenge is to find resurrection. After years of sacrificing for family, they discover their own sense of mission in this world.
April 16th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
The climb, however, is never about the goal–always about the process…and so too there is a process in the descent.
For me the last half of life is more about putting things in place for death…the reward for a life lived.
I can find peace in the first step of a journey and solace in the last…and triumph in the entire process…
April 17th, 2006 at 7:23 am
I work part-time in a college bookstore, and as I listen to the struggles my 18-26 year old co-workers have (”What am I supposed to be doing with my life?”, “Who am I?”) I have told them that being 46 (like I am) means that the same kinds of questions that bubble up in early adulthood will make a return appearance. I have more life experience to shape my answers to those questions, but I also have far less time and strength to pursue the answers I may uncover. The truth is – I am powerless. Father Rohr is right.
The Bible tells us that the second half of our lives are our wisdom years. Our society tells us that we should hope we die before we get old. (In other words, try to control or somehow avoid death.)
I am coming to terms with what it means to descend that mountain with grace instead of fighting for a piece of real estate on the mountain top.
Quick note: What a wonderful profile in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune. Congratulations!
April 24th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
Hey Dave
Was just listening to your MP3 about your book and found it interesting to hear you speak of ’swimming upstream’ against the deadly flow of suburban life.
I am leading a mission team in suburbia in Oz seeking to do exactly that. I’ll have to get a hold of your book and read!
Our website it http://upstream.org.au
Look forward to hearing your thoughts and seeing how they translate to Oz