The Durable Will– GC Myers
Not only during the ascent, but also during the descent my willpower is dulled. The longer I climb the less important the goal seems to me, the more indifferent I become to myself. My attention has diminished, my memory is weakened. My mental fatigue is now greater than the bodily. It is so pleasant to sit doing nothing–and therefore so dangerous. Death through exhaustion is like death through freezing–a pleasant one.
–Reinhold Messner, Moving Mountains: Lessons on Life and Leadership (2001)
I was going to write about the painting at the top, The Durable Will. It’s another orphan that lives here in the studio. The fact that it still lives here is a bit of a headscratcher for me since it has such a strong presence in the spaces where it now hangs. It’s a dynamic piece in both color and stance which combined with its size, 28″ by 28″, seems to make it practically demand attention when I enter the room.
While looking for some words to accompany this painting I came across the words from famed mountaineer Reinhold Messner. He describes how the exhaustion that occurs during a long and rugged climb slowly saps his willpower, bringing on the mental fatigue that begs him to stop moving, to just sit and rest for a spell.
That might not sound too bad a suggestion under normal circumstances. After all, we all need to rest at some point. But when you’re climbing a mountain where conditions are dire, a lapse of focus might cause a misstep which could send you plummeting to your death. Or the fatigue might convince you that you can stop to take a short break which ends up being the ultimate snooze as some future mountaineer comes across your icy corpse with a peaceful look on its frozen face.
I feel like we’re at that point in this country. We’re on some frozen, windswept mountain, struggling to move upward and, more importantly, to simply survive. The conditions are horrible and continue to worsen without end. The winds rage endlessly. The snow mounts up and ice coats the trail ahead, which steepens more and more as it rises.
It feels as though we’ve been battling this bastard of a mountain for years and years. Exhaustion is setting in while the mountain is most treacherous for us. Our minds are telling us to take a break, to tune it all out, to step off the trail for a quick catnap.
That is a recipe for death, pleasant as it might feel in the moment.
We’re on that mountain now, standing on the edge of the precipice of a totalitarian future and a police state that will oversee our every move. So many who backed this regime did so in the name of freedom, fearing an intrusive and overreaching government. That is ironic because that is exactly what they have enabled in this administration– a government that demands Big Brother-like control over its citizens.
What do we choose? Do we sleep a peaceful death? Or do we struggle upward, fighting back against our exhaustion and fatigue and trying to hold on against all odds?
As tired as I am, I choose to keep moving. I believe I have the will to endure. My belief in my ability to hold on might be my only belief at this point.
You have to make that choice for yourself. And remember, it’s not just for yourself.
Here’s Tom Wait with his song Hold On.
Redtree Times 