“Don’t start chasing applause and acclaim. That way lies madness.” – Ron Swanson
Writing about my trek to Everest Base camp for the Heart of the Matter blog yesterday, made me think of my friend, Sue, and her journey to climb Everest. She and her husband, Phil, didn’t summit in the 2001, the year I went with them to base camp. (Phil had already summitted in 1984 as the first American to climb the North side of Everest).
But they did top out together in 2002 and became the first couple to do all seven summits. The seven summits is the achievement of reaching the highest peak on each of the seven continents that Dick Bass made popular. Phil was one of Dick Bass’s guides for many of Dick’s climbs so when Phil finally went to Australia to climb Mt. Kosciuszko (this one is literally just a walk in the park), he became the 8th person in the world to do all seven summits.
Then he married Sue. Since Phil was guiding many of the big peaks and she joined him when her scheduled allowed, before she knew it, she’d climbed most of the seven summits and wanted to do them all. Finally, they summitted Everest in 2002 and became the first couple to do all seven.
After they landed back in Seattle, they were scheduled for all sorts of shows and appearances. But it was their appearance on the Today show that was notable because the morning they were on was right after the 2002 rescue disaster on Mt. Hood. In that unfortunate incident, nine climbers had fallen into the crevasse and three died in the fall. While trying to evacuate the rest, the rescue helicopter crashed onto the mountain and rolled over at one of the rescuers. Fortunately, no one else died and they eventually rescued both the climbers and rescuers.
So, Phil and Sue went on the Today show and from what I remember, the only thing the interviewers wanted to talk about is the Mt. Hood situation. Not their years in the making ascent of these remarkable peaks, their tries and their failures, but a rescue for which neither Phil nor Sue had first-hand knowledge. I think I was more irritated about the Today show questions than Sue and Phil were and they handled it beautifully. They went on to write a book about their experiences, Together on Top Of the World, and Sue became a motivational speaker.
It reminds me of the comedian Seth Myers who hosted the White House Correspondents dinner the night Osama bin Laden was found. The next morning no one was talking about his jokes or the great job he did because it was all eclipsed by the Osama bin Laden raid.
The overall lesson that I take away is that the reward for our efforts must be found within or close to the effort. Like the reward for climbing mountains is overcoming tough inner and outer conditions to keep going. And the payoff for writing is the beauty of stringing together words that sing to our human experience. If telling a joke, the prize might be cracking ourselves up. And when we love something well, the reward is the expansiveness of our own heart growing.
Because if we are counting on the spotlight and applause from others, they might just go off-script or look away at the wrong moment. But we can glow from within in any case.
(featured photo from Pexels)
Surprised By Joy 