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There Are Many Annapurnas.....


pope

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Here's an inspirational story about a friend of mine who went through an ugly divorce and was left to take care of two children. While I might not have sympathy for everybody who experiences a divorce, my friend is genuinely nice/moral person, and I think it's fair to say she and her children were victims of a dishonest man. Anyway, she showed an interest in climbing Mt.Rainier and so I invited her to join a team of assorted novices I intended to lead up the mountain. Although she didn't summit with our group, I gave her a lot of credit for being tough and stepping out of her routine to try something so new and challenging.

I just ran into her at lunch today..she waits tables at a local restaurant. I could tell the minute I saw her that she was extremely happy about something, and she informed me that she had climbed Rainier this summer, fulfilling one of her life goals. It was obvious to me that this experience had empowered her, made her feel strong and in control.

As soon as she left our table, some of my co-works began to question her judgement, suggesting that no middle-age woman with children should be so selfish as to take such risks, that she should be content to center her life around her children. It really pissed me off....it's not as though she was climbing K2 or something, and sure, there is some risk involved, but to me, the impact this experience had on her justifies any smallish risks she might have assumed.

I'm not intending to start a debate about climbing/kids/being responsible and all of that shit....I just wanted to share my friend's personal triumph wid y'all.

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quote:

Originally posted by pope:
Anyway, she showed an interest in climbing Mt.Rainier and so I invited her to join a team of assorted novices I intended to lead up the mountain.

"Hi my name is pope and I will be your Mountaineers Glacier Travel Course Team Leader today!" grin.gif" border="0

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This is RURP:

I think that maybe pope hopes that the girl will read this and that she will think he is sensitive and he thinks that he can GET INTO HER TABLE-WAITING PANTIES. Yes, pope, you are SO SENSITIVE!

I would be more impressed if she had climbed the real Annapurna.

RURP has spoken.

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pope,

It makes me nervous when you mellow out like this.

One retort to your co-workers that comes to mind is whether they think it's okay that she takes risks commuting back and forth to work to feed her children physically, but somehow not okay to take some risk to feed them spiritually by showing a model of pursuing one's goals.

Good post for counteracting a crappy day at work.

ps. Thanks for the posts on bolting. I'm always tempted to just say "ditto", but there's plenty out there taking care of it for me.

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Who wrote this?:

"It was obvious to me that this experience had empowered her, made her feel strong and in control.....I just wanted to share my friend's personal triumph wid y'all." rolleyes.gif" border="0

It ain't the pope I know! Dude! Turn off Oprah and quit escorting Richard Simmons to the expresso bar!

sheeeshhhh!

- your concerned "Alpine Buddy", Dwayner [hell no]

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Truth is, I know RURP and he actually drove all the way up to Rainier for the purpose of offering to carry to base camp the aforementioned lady's tent....which is doubly funny since he pretends to be a super-macho, first-urine-sippin', no-sex-Saturday-before-the-Super-Bowl kind of man's man. Apparently even RURP has a "sensitive side"....... it's the side of his brain that allows him to see the color blonde.

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