How you climb the Mountain is just as important as how you get down the Mountain. And, so it is with life, which for many of us becomes a gigantic lesson. In the end it all comes down to one word. Grace. Its how you accept winning and loosing, Good Luck and Bad Luck, The Darkness and the Light.
Yes, dear Shockathustra. Descend down the mountain further than you climbed, into the abyss, so you may be strengthened to climb your higher mountains. Press on!
----
Fritz Nietzsche (Z, pt 3, chpt 45, "The Wanderer"):
...
And one thing more do I know: I stand now before my last summit, and
before that which hath been longest reserved for me. Ah, my hardest
path must I ascend! Ah, I have begun my lonesomest wandering!
He, however, who is of my nature doth not avoid such an hour: the
hour that saith unto him: Now only dost thou go the way to thy
greatness! Summit and abyss- these are now comprised together!
Thou goest the way to thy greatness: now hath it become thy last
refuge, what was hitherto thy last danger!
Thou goest the way to thy greatness: it must now be thy best courage
that there is no longer any path behind thee!
Thou goest the way to thy greatness: here shall no one steal after
thee! Thy foot itself hath effaced the path behind thee, and over it
standeth written: Impossibility.
And if all ladders henceforth fail thee, then must thou learn to
mount upon thine own head: how couldst thou mount upward otherwise?
Upon thine own head, and beyond thine own heart! Now must the
gentlest in thee become the hardest.
He who hath always much-indulged himself, sickeneth at last by his
much-indulgence. Praises on what maketh hardy! I do not praise the
land where butter and honey- flow!
To learn to look away from oneself, is necessary in order to see
many things.- this hardiness is needed by every mountain-climber.
He, however, who is obtrusive with his eyes as a discerner, how
can he ever see more of anything than its foreground!
But thou, O Zarathustra, wouldst view the ground of everything,
and its background: thus must thou mount even above thyself- up,
upwards, until thou hast even thy stars under thee!
Yea! To look down upon myself, and even upon my stars: that only
would I call my summit, that hath remained for me as my last summit!-
Thus spake Zarathustra to himself while ascending, comforting his
heart with harsh maxims: for he was sore at heart as he had never been
before. And when he had reached the top of the mountain-ridge, behold,
there lay the other sea spread out before him; and he stood still
and was long silent. The night, however, was cold at this height,
and clear and starry.
I recognise my destiny, said he at last, sadly. Well! I am ready.
Now hath my last lonesomeness begun.
Ah, this sombre, sad sea, below me! Ah, this sombre nocturnal
vexation! Ah, fate and sea! To you must I now go down!
Before my highest mountain do I stand, and before my longest
wandering: therefore must I first go deeper down than I ever ascended:
-Deeper down into pain than I ever ascended, even into its darkest
flood! So willeth my fate. Well! I am ready.
Whence come the highest mountains? so did I once ask. Then did I
learn that they come out of the sea.
That testimony is inscribed on their stones, and on the walls of
their summits. Out of the deepest must the highest come to its
height.-
Thus spake Zarathustra on the ridge of the mountain where it was
cold: when, however, he came into the vicinity of the sea, and at last
stood alone amongst the cliffs, then had he become weary on his way,
and eagerer than ever before.
Labels: philosophy, sports
