Mountains—they are unequivocally distinctive. Some would believe that mountains are God’s creation that surpasses the heavens, and others would say that the world evolved to form such megalithic structures. Whatever the case, no other creation can match the height of Mount Everest. The tallest man-made buildings are not in relative comparison. When beholding the site of Burj Khalifa, the tallest skyscraper in the world, an individual could never imagine a more vast creation. Burj Khalifa stands erect at over 828 meters or 2,716.5 feet. However, Mount Everest shadows this height at an astonishing 8,850 meters above sea level. What an incredible record! Now, one can consider how extraordinarily difficult it would be to climb and surpass a mountain of such stature. A mountain is formed out of many stones on top of one another. Life is comprised of many moments in a similar fashion. In the book by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, Three Cups of Tea, mountains are a part of ordinary life. Greg Mortenson’s mission to climb the second highest mountain, K2, quickly turned into a dramatic story of “One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time”. Each moment was a defining period of time in his life and of the lives around him.
Greg Mortenson was a man that lived for the next high, the next highest mountain. He traveled the world summiting the tallest peaks in the world, until his attempt at K2. Mortenson failed to summit, but succeeded in becoming lost. On his way down the elevation, he discovered a Balti village called Korphe, which had an impoverished community. The tribal leader, Haji Ali, took Mortenson in and offered him tea; tea is a sign of respect and friendship in the Middle East. ...
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...ton have spiritual happenstances on their relative mountains. The question of mountains being spiritual may be debated until the end of humanity, but there is no doubt that they play a significant role in religion.
Difficulties are an ever occurring part of a human’s life. These metaphorical mountains that we confront mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically transform us. We have a choice, to fall at the foot of the mountain and give up, turn around and go back, or take our time and confront the peak one stone at a time until we achieve our goals. Mortenson’s choice took the most effort and determination. He fought heroically to provide a nation with opportunities: education, healthcare, and water. Each stone of those mountains, Mortenson utilized to form a better world—not just for his own self, but for the lives of other human beings.
Chapter 2: In Chapter 2 the narrator discusses the history of everest and famous expeditions. Everest’s height was calculated in 1852 in India. Sir George Everest the surveyor general at that time used trigonometry to calculate everest height at 8,822 meters (28,943 ft). In this chapter also it talks about famous expeditions like Hillary and Tenzing and Messner and Habeler.
In 1785, a Christ Child was said to have appeared. A shepherd boy from the village of Tayankani played with the child, but the child disappeared. The child was believed to have disappeared into a rock that was left with his imprint. This is the story behind the pilgrimage to the rock, but those of our community don’t pay much attention to it. Their purpose in the event is to ‘honor’ their supernatural beings. They pay homage to Rit’i (the snow), Taytakuna (Fathers), and the great Apus (Lord Mountains).
While buried, so deep beneath the cavity of adversity, finding hope is nearly impossible. But, it is the ability of decisions that aids as the last gleam of hope retrievable. After facing many struggles, it becomes almost involuntary for someone to put up a guard. With using that strategy, and the transgression of time without progress, there’s a certain ignition of comprehension. Change needs to occur, and a complete remedy of that
Most people do not actively seek out adversity, yet few can escape encountering adversity in the form of hardships and afflictions. Two people who faced great adversity in their lives were Martin Luther King Jr. and my father Brent Vickery. These men both faced adversity in different degrees and at different times and places within the United States, but what makes them similar is that their strength of character allowed them to face adversity boldly.
Looming obstacles in the life of an individual serve as molds which instill perseverance, hard work in an individual's identity and bring hope for the future.
For example, to some nations, certain geographical or topographical features have deep religious and ceremonial meaning. This concept is known as “sacred geography.” For example, in the Cherokee religion, it is believed that the evidence of past religious events (i.e. the creation of the Cherokee people) can still be seen on the physical landscape of what is now known as the Southeastern United States.
“What?” Sun-Jo was appalled at the fact that Peak had decided not to conquer the summit of Mount Everest. How could he give up such a glorifying moment? Peak would have been the youngest boy to ever reach the summit, however, he realized he didn’t want the fame. Sun-Jo was only a few days older than him, and if Sun-Jo reached the summit and Peak did not, he would be the youngest person to summit Everest. Also, Sun-Jo’s family was living on the other side of the mountain and he needed to get to the other side so that he could reconnect with his family. Since Peak avoided his mother’s advice to think of himself and only himself, he did not make it to the top. Many other characters, unlike Peak, were selfish and although it helped some, others were less fortunate.
The novel "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer, he writes about an experience that changes his life when Outside magazine asks him to write an article about the commercialism of Mount Everest, he knew from that moment that he needed to climb the mountain. But of course his expedition does not go as expected. On May 10th Krakauer reaches the summit after a extremely stressful and treacherous trek up, but only to have to scale down the mountain with his team in one of the most dangerous seasons in the history of Everest. Many things went wrong when they came down the mountain and throughout this book, Jon attempts to evaluate what exactly happened and how things went wrong. He researches and figures out every person actions on that mountain. He has speculations about the failures of the expedition, and blames the catastrophe due to a series of little
If mankind was to never fight back against the challenges life throws their way, then the pursuit of happiness would end on the day they stopped fighting for a finer life. Throughout America's history, people have faced dark times, nevertheless many showed that it takes not only courage and determination to fight back against the judgmental society, but action was what allowed for change to be made. Hope was not lost even if only one man survived, living had not been happy for everyone, however a better life was possible. Individuals survived through injustice from assistance of a great speaker who spoke his mind and from a group who disobeyed the law but did the right thing.
Climbing makes for a difficult expedition, you need to give up the wrappers when you was ascending. You need to give up the heavy things, you need to give up your wrappers, and you need to give yourselves. Sometimes we need to give up our lives to climb the mount Everest. According to snow storm, the energy, the oxygen and the people who desired prove themselves the spring’s 96s expedition to mountain Everest was destined to be the most tragic.
“The only real nation is humanity” (Farmer 123). This quote represents a huge message that is received in, Tracy Kidder’s, Mountains Beyond Mountains. This book argues that universal healthcare is a right and not a privilege. Kidder’s book also shows the audience that every individual, no matter what the circumstances, is entitled to receive quality health care. In the book Kidder represents, Paul Farmer, a man who spends his entire life determined to improve the health care of impoverished areas around the world, namely Haiti, one of the poorest nations in the world. By doing this the audience learns of the horrible circumstances, and the lack of quality health care that nations like Haiti live with everyday, why every person has the right to healthcare no matter what, and how cost effectiveness should not determine whether or not these people get to live or die. Two texts that also argue this idea are Monte Leach’s “Ensuring Health Care as a Global Human Right,” and Darshak Sanghavi’s “Is it Cost Effective to Treat the World’s Poor.” Leach’s article is an interview with Benjamin Crème that illustrates why food, shelter, education, and healthcare are human rights that have to be available to everyone. He shares many of the same views on health care as Farmer, and the two also share similar solutions to this ongoing problem. Leach also talks about the rapidly growing aids epidemic, and how it must be stopped. Like farmer, he also argues that it is easier to prevent these diseases then to cure them. Furthermore, Sanghavi’s article represents many of the questions that people would ask about cost effectiveness. Yet similar to Farmer’s views, Sanghavi argues that letting the poor d...
Everest is an unbelievable mountain that has taken the lives of a number of the greatest climbers in history. It was my job to ensure that clients make it up that treacherous mountain safely. My name is Rob Hall. I was the main guide and cofounder of a climbing company called Adventure Consultants. My friend, Gary Ball, and I used to be professional climbers. Together we succeeded in climbing to the highest summit on each of the seven continents in seven months. This was our greatest achievement. After this, we decided to start our own company guiding clients up large mountains. In May 1992, we successfully led six clients to the summit of Everest. Unfortunately, Gary died of cerebral edema in October 1993 during an attempt on the world’s sixth-tallest mountain. He died in my arms and the next day I buried him in a crevasse. Despite the pain that his death had caused me, I continued guiding for our company and eventually led thirty-nine climbers to the summit of Everest.
In response, Bowen answers to the contrary, “Had we mountaineers been free of stress caused by the effort and high altitude, we might have treated the sadhu differently.”
“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both” (Eisenhower). At times we tend to overlook the smaller precious things in life, when that happens we tend to lose ourselves. As a growing society we learn from our mistakes, we grow through our own troubles or through those we hold dear to us. Through comparative character analysis’s and contrasts of Mitch Albom in the novel, Tuesday’s with Morrie and Forrest Gump from the film ‘Forrest Gump’, the acquisition of knowledge is often a painful experience and through suffering, one can achieve various degrees of wisdom. In our society survival becomes a prominent force in our life, anything less than what is necessary is wishful thinking. Being able to overcome the difficult times, and use the experience as a milestone is strength. Most of the time the world seems against us love will be there, but with love comes pain, and the necessity to be able to forgive those for that pain. Life is too precious to always live with regrets, because when you lose a loved one suddenly, it’s impossible to turn back time. In all these forms you grow as a person, so when things get hard don’t run away, take the steps to move forward.
If we let our personal challenges destroy us, then we are nothing and have nothing to offer the world. It is important that we take control of our situation and use the personal hardship as an opportunity to better ourselves. It takes a keen eye and careful self-evaluation to remove any inclusions that will mar the beautiful diamond we possess in all of us. Each one of us is shaped into a distinctive cut of stone, giving way to different grades of clarity and color, making us rare, valuable, and uniquely our own. Frederick Douglass and Barbara Ehrenreich are two individuals who lived in different time periods; however, both individuals used their personal struggles to inspire change in the hearts of others. Just as I use my struggle as a tool to chip away the imperfections in my life, Frederick and Barbara used their experiences to chip away the fallacies of our nation. Personal challenges encourage me to grow as an individual and make better choices for a brighter future.