Mountain Metaphor

The reason I've called this blog Message from the Mountain is because that's where I want to be. I'm not there yet, but I hope I'm a little way up, as opposed to being in the valley. I like mountains, not only literally because of their presence, but because they can be such a powerful metaphor. The background here, a case in point, is Mount Kenya, the second highest mountain in Africa. I climbed it many moons ago, but the memory of it is still vivid and inspiring. I remember getting to the park gates at the bottom of the mountain and the rangers wouldn't let me in because lone hikers had been mauled to death by lions in the past. For some reason that didn't put me off - such is the confidence of youth! So I waited an hour for someone else to show up and started walking up the jungle-clad trail with them. For some reason though I became impatient because this group were always stopping and I wanted to get to the meteorological station at 10,000ft as fast as possible. So, I grabbed a large stick and started walking off on my own. The stick wasn't meant to operate as a staff to aid my walking. The stick was my protection against wild lion attack. I'd like to somehow go back into the past and stop that young version of myself and have a conversation with him. I'd say something like this: "Are you stupid? Do you really think that this flimsy stick will protect you against a lion? Have a think about it. You're in Africa for chrissakes! Didn't you just go to the Masai Mara and see prides of lions eating antelopes whose bloody entrails you saw on the crimson-stained savannah? Now, walk back to that group, be patient and hike up the rest of the trail with them. It's called survival and you're just not playing the game very well."
Yes, I'd try to say that to him, but it probably wouldn't work. At that age, you're invincible. You don't understand fear. You have no conception of what it's like to live amongst wild animals. You've lived in towns and cities up until this point and the wildest thing you've encountered so far is a squirrel. So the risk of being eaten by a lion just isn't on your radar.
I digress, but I will surely pick up this story a bit later.
This experiment by the way, is one hell of a mountain. I think if I'm going to conquer it though, I'm going to have to try and think like my invincible younger self.