It was Marcus Aurelius who said “Focus on the next step you need to take, not on the mountain you must climb.” It’s wise counsel, but what if the problem is not the mountain you have to climb, but its opposite – having no mountain to climb.
Our first instinct is probably “if only – I can think of nothing better”. And if you are over stressed and feeling somewhat frazzled, fair enough. I used to fantasise that one day I would reach the happy state where I could spend each day at the pool reading murder mysteries while chomping away on marshmallows and chocolate. Here’s the thing. As I now transition to retirement and work only 3-4 days each week, that fantasy could become reality a couple of days a week. But it now has little appeal. Seriously, how long can you actually lie by the pool watching your waistline expand as you devour endless lollies and crisps? We are made for more, and we know it.
If you are into Gilbert and Sullivan you might know the lines from “The Baffled Grumbler”:
“Oh, don’t the days seem lank and long
When all goes right and nothing goes wrong.
And isn’t your life extremely flat
With nothing whatever to grumble at.”
There is a problem solver inside each of us, and when all our complex issues are in the sorted basket, boredom is a short step away.
So what should you do if there are no obvious mountains to climb?
Of course not all mountains are the same. David Brooks has written about the two very different mountains we face in life, suggesting that the first focuses on ambition, getting established and proving ourself. For some this is an intensely frustrating mountain with endless setbacks and disappointments leaving behind a set of accomplishments which are at best, modest. Sometimes it is that very disappointment that spurs us on to tackle the second mountain, though others climb it knowing that the have scaled the mountain of ambition and it was not enough.
The second mountain focuses on meaning. We start the climb when we focus more on family, vocation (in the sense of what I am called to rather than simply the job I do), faith (or philosophy if faith is too big a step) and community. It is the journey away from me to us. Failure to climb this mountain is more significant that a failure to reach the top of the first, for this is the mountain where we embrace values that last, and where our lives impact others, not primarily through production, but through meaning making. And it is a mountain that is always there – even if we are bedridden, or deprived of the strength that made it possible to race up Mount Ambition.
There is a problem in the way that I am expressing this. The implication is that this is strictly sequential, and that if you are climbing Mt Ambition you cannot climb Mt Meaning. That isn’t true, and something rather special happens when you are able to hold both together. However, don’t be naive. Scaling two mountains at once is more than a little tricky. Mt Ambition lays so many traps that can lead us astray, and the golden handcuffs of an ever higher salary and greater recognition are hard to break. Jesus did not say that it was impossible for the rich to enter heaven, just that it was easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle (Matt 19:24). Not impossible, but exceptionally difficult. Jesus also reminded us that it is not possible to serve two masters (Matt 6:24). It’s worth thinking through what that means when getting ahead involves compromise after compromise.
For all that, in Matt 6:34 Jesus taught “Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Whichever stage we are at in life, and whichever mountain we are primarily climbing, today brings its own invitation to faithfulness, and is an invitation we should say “yes” to.
So what if there is no mountain to climb? There always is. In the words of one of the songs from Godspell: “Day by day, day by day, O dear Lord, three things I pray. To see thee more clearly, Love thee more dearly, Follow thee more nearly, Day by day.” That’s today’s invitation, regardless of if you are 9 or 99, and even if you have never seen a mountain…
Nice chatting…
Photo by Omar Ramadan: https://www.pexels.com/photo/scenic-view-of-snow-covered-mountains-8658111/
If you are interested in Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Faith and Humanity, listen in to my Faithfully Forward Podcast. This week I’m in conversation with A/Prof Victoria Lorrimar, Director of the Notre Dame Centre for Technology and Human Futures, and we explore the question “Whose future is AI building?” There’s a lot to think about…
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