A Lesson in Awe
It would be nice if when we learned things it did not have to be the hard way. But such is life and therein lies my short story.
When I was about 16 our youth group decided to go on a hiking adventure to the Grand Canyon. I had always dreamed of seeing it in person. The sheer awe and majesty of it lured me. So I signed up and soon enough I was at the rim.
But you know the funny thing was, this was a /hiking/ trip. So we didn't do what 99% of everybody does, go to the lookout points and view the wonder from the top. Instead, we saddled up with light packs and began treading down the arduous 14 1/2 miles to the river below, never having seen what it was we were going to hike into. It was miserable. My hopes were so high that around every bend I would see the glorious cliffs - but nothing. I even ran part way, partly because of excitement and partly cuz it was so steep. Fourteen long miles in 100 degree heat, feet throbbing with pain, anxious to see what I had dreamed of.
And then I was there. At the bottom. But to my extremely disappointed eyes all I could see were a few old wooden buildings called Phantom Ranch and some terribly uninspiring foothills. As I soaked my swollen, blistered feet in a nearby stream, along with a group of girls who had come down the other rim (and worn tennis shoes not boots so their feet were bleeding profusely), I pondered this unhappy circumstance I was in. I was tired, I was aching, and I was miserable. And I had never once seen a single glimmer of those magnificent cliffs you see on TV. So I learned a lesson.
When you're at the bottom, you can't see the top.
And now, so many years later, once again I mope in disappointment and sorrow as I find that the long awaited awe-inspiring Battlestar Galactica of my youth is not going to be shown. Instead a faint shadow of what could have been will air. And around every bend of every day I hope to find it isn’t true. How could this happen? And that's when it dawns on me. I learned this lesson 30 years ago. For you see, you can't reimagine something unless you start at the bottom. And as I learned so long ago:
When you're at the bottom, you can't see the top.
It could have been wonderful.
If we just stayed at the top.
Affectionately and respectfully,
Muffit
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