A Letter To Those Who Love Me

Below is a poem/letter I wrote to friend and family a couple years ago trying to explain to them why I wanted to go climb Mt. Everest. I have been told by a number of folks that they find it inspiring as they pursue their own adventures and climb their own metaphorical Everests.

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A letter to those who love me

Why do I need to go climb?

And why not a smaller mountain?

A soul can’t be bought, it must be earned

It’s not about “because it’s there”

It’s because I’m here.

I’m not trying to be George Mallory

I’m trying not to be Willie Lowman

I would literally not be me absent the challenges of becoming an Eagle

Or Philmont

Or Ironman

Or Aconcagua

Or SimpleRelevance

Or PapaJohns

And now Sagamartha

These iterations of the hero’s journey have created me

Absent them, I’d be a different soul in this sack of flesh

Less thoughtful, less kind. Less confident. Less settled. Less joyful.

I would not want to be that man

Far more than death I fear life as the cold and lonely soul who knows neither victory nor defeat

This isn’t a journey to the top of a summit

It’s not about standing atop the world

It’s a journey inward

It’s about the preparation far more than the test

Summit day is simply a celebration of the transformation and preparation that allows me to get there

Hubris may be a catalyst for bildungsroman but is ultimately its antithesis

The highest and most powerful peak surrounded by a spiritual mecca

I may be too fortunate to ever know the strength and joy of the Sherpa

Too coddled and rich to know their wisdom

But perhaps I can commune with them for a moment

Perhaps some amount of meditation and arduousness in such a spiritual land

In the shadow of Mother Earth can awaken and develop more of Erik