Beck Weathers died on Mount Everest. Then he rose from the dead. He chronicles his death and resurrection in the self-revealing book, Left for Dead.
The new off-the-mountains life Beck now experiences is much deeper than physical renewal and/or adaptation to permanent handicaps. Author John Powell often emphasized that “we live as we think.” Dr. Weathers’ thinking pre- and post-Everest underwent a Copernican revolution. He is a first-class example of how changing one’s thinking can alter one’s life . . . dramatically.
Beck reveals that as a young man he drifted away from a consciousness of spirituality “more out of apathy than revolt or rejection.” The death-and-resurrection Everest experience got his spiritual attention. He came to realize that one must be grounded or anchored (his words) to something other than oneself. He writes: “I no longer seek to define myself externally, through goals and achievements and material possessions. For the first time in my life I have peace.”
Words like religion or spirituality or faith are just words. Weathers was measurably touched observing the Buddhist Sherpas who he describes as “living their religion; it is part of their every motion. They don’t just practice on Sunday morning and Wednesday night, but each hour of each day.” As he ponders the application of his own growing spiritual awareness, he muses: “I think what truly matters in faith is not what you profess, but whether you live your faith’s tenets.”
Words – dogmas, creeds, tenets, affirmation of faith – are cheap . . . or certainly can be. Putting them into concrete action each hour of each day is not. It can be downright costly. For the serious, it’s a way of life.
A friend cautioned me to avoid writing about politics or religion in my blog posts lest some prospective fans might be turned off. But spirituality is a ground-level part of human existence. Beck Weathers experienced what life can be like when ignoring such. Different things “work” for each one of us and my encouragement is simply to not deny or ignore this foundational dimension of life. Beck reconnected is a much happier camper.
