Two men, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal, reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953, the first to achieve the feat of standing atop the highest point on Earth, some 29,000 feet up from sea level. They made it safely back down the mountain, living to tell the tale.
An earlier explorer, George Mallory, who died upon the mountain in 1924, used to say he wanted to climb Everest "because it 's there." If we understand Mallory's answer, we know something profound about humankind.
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| Mallory |
Human life is a test, a challenge. We are challenged to survive in good form. Some analogs for 'good form' would be 'nature' or 'soul.' The individual human being is to preserve his soul through time. That's it, that's the fundamental challenge to a person from birth to death. Be good, not bad. Become good.
