Everest Size Problems

I am deeply saddened by the current state of our nation. If we were Mount Everest, our nation would be a network of deep cavasses lying just beneath the surface of the snowy facade. On the surface we put up a smooth vision of wealth, prosperity, liberty, happiness, and freedom. Yet one small step exposes the bottomless pits and we begin the startling death drop into hate, judgment, racism, self-righteousness, greed and faulty systems. 

If we were in a climbing group up Everest together and I fell into a real icy crevasse, I hope you would not say, “serves her right,” or shrug it off with an, “She must have not taken the right precautions.” I hope you would approach the gap and see if I was OK, “Are you there? Are you breathing? Bleeding? Can you move?” All of these questions are much more helpful starting points. Would I have a chance to survive? Would you offer help? Through me a line? Would you climb down there with me attached to your safety harness in order to pull me out? Would you sit at the top and cheer me on and tell me I could do it if I just kept working hard enough? Would you expect me to get myself out since I fell in there all on my own? 

I would hope you would have an empathetic response. Yet so often when we see someone fall through the cavernous cracks in our society, we blame the walker, not the crack. If it doesn’t impact us directly- we don’t tend to care that deeply or that long.  If it doesn’t change the life of a person we love, what’s the big deal really?

We let people fall. We have created a million sub-sections and become a nation of generally self-centered, self-righteous people. We yell loudly for causes we believe in and programs that will benefit us and the people we love, but we fight and oppose things we don’t resonate with or don’t like. We label things we don’t like as wrong or blame the “other” side for the wrong. 

If you and I started our climb with a total of 20 people and even lost two people to a falling death, don’t you think we would start to rethink our strategy or our climbing system? We would see the need for everyone's input, voice, and experience. We might start to carry different equipment, rethink our communication strategies, or create brand new systems all together.  We would likely put a strong emphasis on QUICKLY learning how to best navigate the terrain and survive. We would look at the past to inform our future. If we did not act quickly, we could easily be stuck in freezing weather debating whose fault it was, or other useless information, and we would greatly increase the chances of us all dying by hypothermia. 

The cavasses are there- they have been there- They are not going away. BUT we can start carrying different tools. I ask you to start listening to others ideas with curiosity instead of a debate mindset. We are making life and death decisions each day, but we often forget that. For the love of God and the preservation of lives across our nation, can we please start by demonstrating compassion, empathy and concern. Can we start treating people the way we want to be treated, and can we start listening more than we yell or accuse.