Perhaps Ed Veisters is the real most interesting man in the world. Climbed Mount Everest five times, without supplemental oxygen. Also made an appearance in the movie Vertical Limit and the IMAX film Everest and wrote a book about K2.
I find inspiration here for symbolic mountains of my own, but here's what Ed has to say about the real deal. When first he tried Everest he had to turn back, because of weather. Here he describes his first successful climb to the summit:
It was twenty degrees below zero. The unforgiving Tibetan wind whipped around me, covering the footprints of my passage - a constant reminder of the challenges that lay ahead amid the rock and snow. I scanned ahead, following the outline that defined the massive shard of glistening crystal. Everest. It stood taunting me once again, spectacular crown sharply defined in the ethereal sky.
...
(snip)
Now, after years of preparation, I was back at base camp and ready: well trained, prepared, focused. I'd visualized that final stretch of the summit ridge over and over. The summit had shadowed my dreams, my thoughts, everything. It would be the most difficult part, I knew. When climbing that high without supplemental oxygen, time races on while forward movement is slowed to a crawl.
Days passed. Days of numbing cold, incessant winds, and constant work. Nights of almost no rest, sleeping in tissue-thin tents and down-filled sleeping bags. Endless hours of plodding up a vertical mountain ...until finally, I was once again three hundred feet from the top. I stared at the summit. A pattern emerged: one determined step, rest, a dozen breaths. Another singular step, rest, and more breaths. I focused on reaching closer landmarks. Each step became a goal within itself. And then almost miraculously it seemed, I reached the top.
Ed Veisturs
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
The Journey not the Destination
My blog, my blog, whatever happened to my blog? Well, I guess I got busy with life, and when I have so much on my place I can't always do everything. And I just don't feel the need these days to ramble on so much to the world about myself and my little issues. But you know, I do want to keep up writing, though I wish I was more prolific, and that I had more exciting stories to tell. Like the Don Equis beer guy, the most interesting man in the world. But hey my mom never had a tattoo that said "Son" and my blood doesn't smell like cologne. I'm not Hemingway safariing in Africa or Humphrey Bogart boating the Ulanga river in a movie, or Neil Peart the drummer and lyricist for the legendary band Rush who chronicled adventures bicyling through Camaroon. Or J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis hanging out at Oxford and creating entire imaginary worlds from their genius minds and stories blessing the lives of people around the world, from which they are still making movies.
I have been to other countries which was great, but that's not the norm. I hung out in Kansas City recently mostly sitting in a prayer room. Adventure for me is riding a bike around town or to work, and being wild for me is trying sake for the first time at the sushi bar. I have a couple Christian tats and geeky Elvish tat. I rock out on the guitar...at church. I did once go to a Motorhead concert using earplugs, drinking a waterbottle, and not even wearing leather.
I recently read a book by Donald Miller called "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years". In that he talks about how we need to make better stories with our lives. And the struggles we have are merely conflicts within a great story that God is writing for us. In the book he says, "Somehow we realize that great stories are told in conflict, but we are unwilling to embrace the potential greatness of the story we are actually in. We think God is unjust rather than a master storyteller."
Like most people change and overcoming obstacles is difficult. I tend to get frustrated with others who are stuck in a rut, but who am I to judge as others don't necessarily understand my own difficulties. The days continue to move forward, and I have to examine myself if I'm moving forward along with time, or coasting and just getting by.
I also picked up this book called No Boundaries all about adventuring the great outdoors and what it does within us. It makes me think of the prophetic word I had in Kansas City last year about overcoming mountains. The book had a story of a mountain climber who as he approached the summit every slow inch was an effort. But hey no matter how slow, he was moving forward, one step at a time toward the summit.
The tediousness of practicing Taekwondo in the garage or in class is hardly action movie material. The theme of real martial arts is overcoming yourself, and learning to respect others, not beating others. Whether from my reading from martial arts philosophy to Christian classics or what God is telling me in my own life, there seems to be a theme that the journey is greater than the destination. I'm not Chuck Norris, only Josh slightly less clutsy than before. We as humans can tend to avoid pain and risks and yet pain and risks is what moves us forward.
The church's move to Vancouver was hard to grasp at first. As with many things in life, God's promises are always true, they just don't always come about in the way I want them to. But hey guess what, a new house of prayer has been birthed. It's hardly 24/7, but hey it's begun. We have one weekly meeting and then me and others have taken shifts, mostly by ourselves. To be honest we don't know much about what we're doing, but there's lots of great resources such as Ihop and Mike Bickle's site that we're learning from. I don't understand it all, but felt led to play on Saturday morning. Yes, gas is pricy and I live in Portland/Gresham. But hey, I no longer have to go to Kansas City to experience the house of prayer, and I can hang out with friends and leaders in church who are becoming like-minded in hunger and vision. I've searched for a long time and as strange is it is this house of prayer is home.
Here's to moving forward, one slow step at a time.
I have been to other countries which was great, but that's not the norm. I hung out in Kansas City recently mostly sitting in a prayer room. Adventure for me is riding a bike around town or to work, and being wild for me is trying sake for the first time at the sushi bar. I have a couple Christian tats and geeky Elvish tat. I rock out on the guitar...at church. I did once go to a Motorhead concert using earplugs, drinking a waterbottle, and not even wearing leather.
I recently read a book by Donald Miller called "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years". In that he talks about how we need to make better stories with our lives. And the struggles we have are merely conflicts within a great story that God is writing for us. In the book he says, "Somehow we realize that great stories are told in conflict, but we are unwilling to embrace the potential greatness of the story we are actually in. We think God is unjust rather than a master storyteller."
Like most people change and overcoming obstacles is difficult. I tend to get frustrated with others who are stuck in a rut, but who am I to judge as others don't necessarily understand my own difficulties. The days continue to move forward, and I have to examine myself if I'm moving forward along with time, or coasting and just getting by.
I also picked up this book called No Boundaries all about adventuring the great outdoors and what it does within us. It makes me think of the prophetic word I had in Kansas City last year about overcoming mountains. The book had a story of a mountain climber who as he approached the summit every slow inch was an effort. But hey no matter how slow, he was moving forward, one step at a time toward the summit.
The tediousness of practicing Taekwondo in the garage or in class is hardly action movie material. The theme of real martial arts is overcoming yourself, and learning to respect others, not beating others. Whether from my reading from martial arts philosophy to Christian classics or what God is telling me in my own life, there seems to be a theme that the journey is greater than the destination. I'm not Chuck Norris, only Josh slightly less clutsy than before. We as humans can tend to avoid pain and risks and yet pain and risks is what moves us forward.
The church's move to Vancouver was hard to grasp at first. As with many things in life, God's promises are always true, they just don't always come about in the way I want them to. But hey guess what, a new house of prayer has been birthed. It's hardly 24/7, but hey it's begun. We have one weekly meeting and then me and others have taken shifts, mostly by ourselves. To be honest we don't know much about what we're doing, but there's lots of great resources such as Ihop and Mike Bickle's site that we're learning from. I don't understand it all, but felt led to play on Saturday morning. Yes, gas is pricy and I live in Portland/Gresham. But hey, I no longer have to go to Kansas City to experience the house of prayer, and I can hang out with friends and leaders in church who are becoming like-minded in hunger and vision. I've searched for a long time and as strange is it is this house of prayer is home.
Here's to moving forward, one slow step at a time.
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