Dear Soul Arcanum:
Recently there was much in the news about the death of David Sharp and the near death of another hiker to the Mt. Everest Summit. David Sharp was returning from the summit when he ran out of oxygen. Forty hikers went past him that day but only one stopped: Inglis, a double amputee who was determined to be the first amputee to make it to the summit of Mt. Everest. He determined that David was so far gone that it was not worth using any of his oxygen to revive him; he also really wanted to achieve his own goal. Sir Edmund Hillary has denounced this attitude by stating it is more important to help someone survive than to reach the summit. The blogs have been full of folks agreeing with Sir Edmund Hillary, or stating that anyone who chooses to reach Mt. Everest’s summit does so at their own risk, and it is not fair to ask or assume others will help you out when all are under extreme survival conditions. To me there seems to be an obvious lack of humanity, compassion and morality here. Why? Are we a doomed race? I would like to know your spiritual view on this matter. Should we not do all we can to save a life?
– Betsy
Dear Betsy:
This controversy illuminates why life in the physical is such a powerful spiritual learning experience, for it is just this sort of event that makes everyone question the basic nature of right and wrong.
Of course, it’s one thing to ponder such decisions from the comfort of our living rooms, and another to be faced with them in reality. Until we are in such a situation, we do not truly know what we would do. Often those who believe they would be heroic are disappointed in themselves, and those who haven’t given such matters much thought rise to the occasion.
I believe that a “spiritual” view will naturally be a bit lighter than a physically oriented perspective. Instead of condemnation of anyone in particular, a spiritual view will encompass compassion for all parties. It will also reflect the truth that we are more than physical beings – that each body is just a temporary vehicle for exploring and experiencing life on earth. Someone coming from a spiritual perspective will certainly cherish life but at the same time view death as a natural transition into a new state of being.
There are lots of factors that may influence how an individual may feel about death at any given time. People of great faith may view the shedding of a disabled or diseased body as a blessing. Even deeply spiritual people, however, can have a strong attachment to survival when they believe they are needed here on Earth. Someone who isn’t so spiritual or who doesn’t believe in life after death would of course tend to view the loss of physical life as a tragedy, and thus believe that we should go to every effort possible to prolong it. So as we contemplate others’ moral decisions, we must remember that each one of us has different views and needs, largely because each one of us is learning what we need to learn.
As for this particular situation, I believe that even if David were too far gone to survive physically, I would have stopped and prayed with him or done whatever I could to comfort his soul – but then, I’m a minister. It would never occur to me that reaching the top of some mountain could be more important than showing a dying man compassion. Then again, I would never try to reach the top of Everest anyway – not unless you told me there was an intergalactic angel convention at the summit – in which case you’d better stand back!
Which brings me to my next point: people who try to climb Everest are an extreme lot. They trek to the summit BECAUSE it is perilous. Death strikes frequently on Everest’s frozen slopes; in fact, David Sharp was the seventh person to die this year alone. If it were not so risky, these climbers would be somewhere else, doing something more dangerous.
I researched this story, and as it turns out, David Sharp was sorely ill-equipped and unprepared. Further, Inglis, the double amputee you mentioned, had such bad frostbite on his hands that his fingertips will probably have to be removed; he also became a double amputee when his lower extremities were severely frostbitten during a prior expedition in 1982. Despite losing his legs to Everest years ago, he still keeps climbing! It seems to me that these climbers can in no way be said to represent the general spiritual state of humanity – they’re nuts, and probably proud of it. I don’t think we can view the whole world as gone bad based on the choices of a small group of crazy people who are obsessed with an extreme goal.
I also read that another climber, Dawas, did all he could to try to save David. David was near the summit and unable to help himself in any way when Dawas found him. Dawas radioed for help, gave David oxygen, spent an hour trying to get David to stand and move, and when nothing worked, he finally decided he had to leave him – and he did so crying all the while. Further, despite his proximity to the top, he did not summit the mountain himself because he’d given his oxygen to David. If I’m going to take any example of the state of humanity from this story, I think I will focus on the selfless compassion of Dawas.
Even David Sharp’s mother said that her son responsible for his own survival, and she does not blame other climbers for failing to save him. If I did something like try to climb Everest, I too would do it with full understanding of how dangerous this undertaking was, and I would not expect anyone else to risk their lives or sacrifice their greatest dream in order to help me. It is one thing to be doing something ordinary and end up in a pickle that requires you to be rescued, and quite another to undertake a dangerous adventure because it gives you a thrill, and then expect others to risk their lives racing to your aid when you get in a bind – ESPECIALLY if you have failed to plan and prepare adequately.
There are many wonderful souls in the world, and there are many who have yet to evolve into active care and compassion for others. Don’t let those younger souls get you down. They’re still learning what they need to learn, just as we are still learning what we need to learn. Allowing events that are so appalling they are newsworthy to color your general view of humanity is like deciding the whole world is populated by short, chubby people based on your visits to a preschool classroom!
I do understand how you feel, however. When one reaches a certain level of spiritual development, it can feel like we’re the only grownup in a crowded party full of teenagers. When disillusionment or indignation creep in, we must humbly remember that we were once in others’ spiritual shoes. No doubt there are many people far more enlightened than we are who would view our own decisions as spiritually sophomoric.
The bottom line is that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to big moral decisions. That’s why we must learn how to think for ourselves, listen within for guidance, act on the truth we find in our own hearts, and trust that others will do the same. Humanity has been shown the greatest respect in the gift of our free will. If God trusts us to choose for ourselves and to learn the “hard way” when necessary, we are wise to strive to emulate this faith in human nature by allowing others to choose for themselves as well.
Of course, we can also learn from others’ experiences – which is just what you are trying to do – and in this way, we can turn life’s tragedies into opportunities to cultivate greater personal wisdom.
May you find something of meaning and value in all of your experiences!
– Soul Arcanum