This is the second in what I’m hoping will be a series of twelve (or so) posts about single images from the past year. A little background story to the images and why they are important to me.
The turning of the page of the calendar, the single movement of clocks past a set time, a toast to memories past as well as friends both old and new and suddenly the world is fresh, full of hope and second chances. Or so our cultural touchstones would have us believe.
Reality is, calendars change every day, clocks always march ahead and reflections on our past happen daily for almost all. The difference in the case of early January is we take the perspective that everything is new again and the world s full of the opportunity to do things differently if not better.
A better approach, perhaps, would be to treat every day as exactly that.
The chance to improve on the decisions of the day before, lend an unexpected hand perhaps in an unexpected way and in general make things a little bit better for ourselves, the people around us and the world in general. In other words, persevere.
“Man starts over again everyday, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows…”
Emil Cioran
The image above is from the summit from Mount Jo after an early morning hike last February that led to an extended hike through the valley to Avalanche Lake and an overall fantastic day. It also has led to an unexpectedly protracted attempt to climb the three peaks, Wright, Algonquin and Iroquois, pictured.
Beckoning as mountains do once you’ve climbed to the summit of one the image seemingly laid out the trip right before my eyes inviting me to get to those peaks to look back on Mount Jo. The vision remains but at this point sitting by the woodstove in early January, the goal of taking all three of these peaks remains uncompleted.
Two of the three have, separately, been managed. Wright eventually succumbing despite battering me both psychologically and physically in a solo effort and then Algonquin using nature’s windy fury attempting to throw my climbing partner and myself off the mountain.
Each “failure” punctuated with minor successes, lessons learned and a greater sense of picking up a gauntlet thrown down. All leading to a short training hike today and the beginning of the process of planning with the goal being a return to that same starting point but leaving with a different ending.
Iroquois too will eventually be conquered. It’s our nature to persevere.