Mount Everest - First Person

Stop crawling up my spine. The hubris of your species never fails to amaze me. I'm a slab of rock -- and I've got more intelligence than y'all. I'm just a mountain who wants to go to work every day and spend time with my little mountains. Stop bothering me. Just stop it.


Do you think planting your little flags in my snow is some kind of profound achievement? Please. You think you're conquering me? I'm not a prize to be won. I've been here longer than you can imagine, and I'll still be here long after you're gone, whether your flag is flapping up here or not. The truth is, you're not conquering me. You're just rolling the dice with your fragile little lives.


You call it a challenge. I call it foolishness. Why do you need to risk your lives to feel like you've accomplished something? Is the only way to measure your worth by the number of dangers you've dodged? Here's an idea: why don't you climb the metaphorical mountains in your society instead? Trust me, your energy could be much better spent.


Have you noticed your hospitals? Your schools? Your libraries? Imagine if all the time, money, and effort you put into oxygen tanks and crampons went toward solving real problems. Write a novel, paint a masterpiece, teach a child to read. You could save lives, cure diseases, or just make the world a little brighter for someone else. Those are peaks worth summiting.


Instead, you trudge up here, only to leave behind trash, trample over sacred spaces, and sometimes — let's be honest here — abandon your own teammates. You turn me into a spectacle, and for what? Bragging rights? A selfie with frostbite?


Look, I get it. You're restless. You want to prove you're alive. But life isn't about flirting with death. It's about connecting, creating, and contributing. You've got this incredible ability to imagine and innovate, and yet you squander it trying to stand on top of a pile of rocks.


So please, do me and yourselves a favor. Stop crawling up my spine. Go climb the mountains that truly matter. Change the world. Because trust me, I'm not going anywhere. But time? Time is running out for the things that really need fixing.



(This writing is donated to the public domain.)



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Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
https://pairsmathgame.com
https://philshapirochatgptexplorations.blogspot.com/
https://bsky.app/profile/philshapiro.bsky.social

He/Him/His

"Wisdom begins with wonder." - Socrates
"Learning happens thru gentleness."
"We must reinvent a future free of blinders so that we can choose from real options."  David Suzuki

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