“You cannot be a mountain climber and a dumbass” ~ Mr. Harper at Harper’s General Store

Mr. Harper is an older gentleman who runs Harper’s general store in Seneca Rocks West Virginia.  I overheard him telling this to a young group looking for lessons on mountain climbing.  For some reason it did strike me as profound and you can look at it for different aspects of life not simply mountain climbing which is what this gentleman obviously meant it to be.

Seneca Rocks, West Virginia

Throughout life we have all kinds of mountains that we need to climb and overcome.  Some mountains are small while others tower above our heads.  Sometimes we learn the lessons we need in order to climb these mountains.  Other times we think we know to get on top and act like fools or as Mr. Harper said “dumbasses”.  What happens then?  One way or another we end up getting hurt and not completely making it out on top.  Regardless of whether we have to tools to climb or not the mountain always looms over us appearing higher than it is, but then once you get to the top, it is the greatest feeling in the world.

We tend to think we can handle anything and don’t need instructions for anything including overcoming hardships.  We act stupid sometimes and do stupid things.  We do things that will cause us to stumble and fall.  Things that inhibit us from making it to the top.  Sometimes the climb has a slight trail to follow, but we want the shortcut.  Other times we need to scale the sides of the mountain and then we look at the trail wishing we can take it.  Sometimes we think we can  handle it all on our own without help of any kind.  Then we get to a point where we don't know what to do and stumble or get lost.  Along the way we do stupid things, listen to the wrong people make the wrong decisions, but that is all a part of being humans and learning the process.

With what Mr. Harper was saying you cannot be a mountain climber and do dumb things.  You cannot climb the highest mountains without knowing what you are doing.  The same for climbing the mountains of trials in our lives; we need some idea of how to proceed with caution and do things right rather than running headfirst into the side of the mountain.