Jun
19
2010
The Mountain
Author: Benjamin F. SchenckBenjamin F. Schenck
Mar. 24, 2010
The Mountain
The nuclear explosion’s shockwave circumnavigated the globe three times, and its mushroom cloud reached into the upper mesosphere, seven times higher than the peak of Mt. Everest. This is the energy released from Tsar Bomba, a Russian nuclear experiment. This bomb is the most powerful ever detonated and has only been made possible because Albert Einstein followed his life purpose or “Personal Legend”, as defined by Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist (1993), to discover “E=mc2”. Do the math using this little equation to realize that the 50 megaton explosion (3,333 times that of Hiroshima) of Tsar Bomba can be equated to the same release of energy from one pound of human mass, if converted to raw energy. Imagine not only the physical energy, but the total energy of a human being, energy that, when applied to other’s lives, is many times more powerful. As Coelho writes, “…when we each strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too” (Coelho 150). What are we, as human beings, truly capable of achieving if we each follow our Personal Legend? Life experience continually teaches me that living out and acting on one’s Personal Legend will better everyone and everything in the Universe, in some way.
How do we measure the effect one’s Personal Legend has on people’s collective hearts and souls? Perhaps we can try to imagine what life would be like if one person had not achieved their Personal Legend. Einstein’s Personal Legend, for instance, is one that has some very visible and physical aftermath. What would life be like with no nuclear or solar power? Thomas Edison also pursued a Personal Legend which, after failing 3,000 times achieved a working light bulb, leading to enormously visible results. How different would the world be if, during his 3,000 failure journey, Edison gave up? How many people’s lives would be different? How many of us would now be left in the dark?
Edison and Einstein are two of my role models, and they help illustrate the importance of pursuing one’s Personal Legend. They inspire me to seek out my Personal Legend. Defining my Personal Legend has taken some doing with a lot of help from teachers, mentors, and friends.
I have an affinity for camping outdoors. Camping and surviving in Mother Nature has an effect on me which can only be described as Connection. Initially having little understanding of that Connection, I have come to know it as a connection with the Universe, with the One from which we all come, or as Paulo Coelho puts it, The Soul of the World. I remember clearly the experience in which my Personal Legend first became apparent to me. I am fortunate because I still have a photograph of when this experience happened. Looking at it I can still recall those events…
After toting 55 pound backpacks for 25 miles into the Red Cloud Wilderness of Wyoming, my friends and I sit looking with immense appreciation at Mirror Lake and its life partner the overshadowing Bomber Mountain (so named for a B-29 Bomber that crashed on it and remains there to this day). The air is nourishing and clean, clearing our heads. The valley below us is strewn with violets, blues, yellows, and oranges, all protesting that their beauty can only be seen from so high up. As I realize my achievement, my legs begin rooting into the ground to prevent me from moving one more inch. But the bodily ache has no grip because the Connection has a hold, deep in my heart. “I can’t believe I actually get paid to do this!” I utter those words, connected to The Soul of the World. I know this is my calling; this is the way I will reach people, teach people, and change lives for the better. Everyone there, all my friends, understand. To place yourself in the grandeur, the colossal eminence of nature and just “be” is an experience that can connect just about anyone to the Universe.
Climbing Bomber Mountain is just the beginning of my life’s journey to realizing my Personal Legend, and it colors the rest of my life with omens. Omens are like road signs directing one’s journey along the path. Coming off the mountain, any mountain for that matter, carries with it the lingering presence of The Soul of the World. This presence teaches me how to understand the Language of the World, to read the omens that are my guides. The first of these omens comes to me as a lesson straight from the mountain.
I can overcome all obstacles to achieve my goals. Coelho says “…no matter how many detours and adjustments it made, the Caravan moved toward the same compass point. Once obstacles were overcome it returned to its course…” (Coelho 75) The caravan traversing the desert is much like climbing a mountain. One who climbs the mountain overcomes many obstacles. These obstacles span the gamut of physical, mental, and spiritual devices which must be worked through to achieve the objective. Obstacles are just things to be overcome, and one’s life tends to course correct towards one’s Personal Legend, the objective. In The Alchemist the objective is to travel through the vast Sahara Desert to reach the oasis. The objective of climbing a mountain is just as clear, to reach the top. The simplicity of the objective often escapes people. The achieving of the objective almost never does.
Many omens root in my subconscious for some time before reaching fruition. Still, the omens are abundant, and two of those key omens have brought me to where I am now and so are worthy of mention…
At 26 years of age, I enlist in the United States Navy. I spend five years building a successful career. Every time I am up for advancement, I am promoted. I achieve a couple of distinguishing accomplishments to my name which are looked favorably upon by those higher in command. Among these accomplishments is being an expert trainer in my field of CNC machining. It is certain to be a good 20-year run to retirement if I choose to stay.
In my fifth year of military service I meet and marry a woman named Christiana. I, not unlike the character, Santiago, when working in the crystal shop, begin to think that I have enough money to build a new life with her. Briefly, I think about my dream of being a professional guide and taking people into the wilderness to achieve life-changing experiences, but I have intense doubts as to how being a guide will work. I have doubts that Christiana will be alright with me being out of communication, up in the mountains for weeks at a time, so at four years, six months into my five year enlistment I am ready to reenlist.
Then I learn another great lesson. Coelho puts it concisely when his character, the King, states, “To realize one’s Personal Legend is a person’s only obligation. All things are one. And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it” (Coelho 22). Oh, how the Universe conspires.
A major accident occurs on my boat. One of two giant steam engines on board the USS Frank Cable blows out a main steam supply valve. In the chaos of wailing alarms and flashing lights, amid the cramped, grey corridors, 18 men and women are cooked in a gushing outpour of 700 degree steam. One of those people is Tom Valentine, a young man whom I have been training for about a year. The sight of him, broiled like a turkey, breaks my heart. The Universe has conspired, and though I will never forget Tom Valentine or the experiences I have had in the Navy, I make the decision to end my military career.
After the Navy I move to Los Angeles to live with my wife. Living in L.A. is certainly a learning experience of its own. All the New Age thinking all but infects me, but not with disease, in fact, quite the opposite. Life here creates in me self-awareness, and that allows for a potentially crippling moment to become a powerful and awesome experience of enlightenment.
In December of 2008, one of Christiana’s friends serves me with divorce papers. Two years have gone by since the Navy, and I hold a job for only six months, as well as a few other small, under-the-table, cash commitments as a handyman. Like many who return from the military with various forms of PTSD, I am having trouble reintegrating into society. Submerged anger is a constant problem, and the feeling of loss, which I can explain only as missing the camaraderie of my fellow shipmates, keeps me reeling in discontent. The decisions I make in these two years are hardly decisions at all, and my ambiguity allows the natural entropy of the Universe to tear me and my marriage apart.
After I receive those divorce papers, I take all that remains in our savings and buy an old worn 1976 Dodge RV. I move everything of mine I can into it, and as things go from bad to worse in my marriage, I slowly roll out of Christiana’s life and out of our driveway onto the streets of L.A.
L.A. is similar to the Sahara also in that she, as Coelho writes, “… is a capricious lady, and sometimes she drives men crazy” (Coelho 71). Being effectively homeless leads me to associate with people whom I had tried not to notice before. Many of them have gone crazy and many of those who are crazy are veterans, like me. I think there is a point in life when a decision must be made: Either go crazy or go get the dream; get busy living or get busy dying.
Gradually, the RV starts breaking down on and then my third lesson is upon me. Finally, the engine stops working in a city called Santa Monica, not far from the Community College. This is the lowest point of my life, no money, no working vehicle, and it seems as if all my friends are either thousands of miles away, or lost to Christiana in the divorce (weird how that works). Santiago, at his lowest point, makes a brilliant observation: “… He realized that he had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief and as an adventurer in quest of his treasure”(Coelho 42). These are my thoughts, almost exactly.
On December 27, 2008 I connect again, deeply with The Soul of the World. I have been lachrymose all through Christmas. Then I remember my time on the mountain. I see my dream. I see what I have to do to achieve it. I see to whom I will need to speak. I see the choice I have to make. I have to choose to live in the present and leave the past in the past. I have to choose to be happy.
Learning that lesson is the best worst moment of my life, but actively choosing to be happy every day since that day has made all the difference. Three months later I run the L.A. Marathon and everyone I know is inspired by the endeavor. Six months after that I enroll in College, and for the first time in my life, get strait As and for the first time I hear my parents say they are proud of me. Now I am learning the mechanics of business to run my own backpacking company. I am situated as if in Coelho’s oasis at Tarifa. I have many Alchemists to learn from. I stand at the edge of realizing my dream.
After getting a divorce, serving in the Navy, and climbing Bomber Mountain, I now trust that pursuing one’s Personal Legend is all that really matters. Uniting these omens leads me here, to the present, guiding people to experience Connection through their journey on the mountain. In this way my Personal Legend creates a ripple, one that will improve the Universe.
Epilogue
Next week I’m going out to climb another mountain. You can come if you want. The Mountain awaits Connection with us. Until then I leave the parting thought to another of my role models, Martin Luther King.
“We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
Martin Luther King
Works Cited
Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist. [San Francisco]: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993. Print.
Einstein, Albert, and Carl Seelig. Ideas and Opinions. New York: Crown, 1982. Print.
King, Martin Luther, and James Melvin. Washington. A Testament of Hope: the Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991. Print.
Lathrop, George P. “Talks with Edison.” Harpers Magazine, Vol. 80 Feb. 1890: 425. Print.
“Nuclear Weapon Yield -.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon_yield>.
Seeds, Michael A. Foundations of Astronomy. Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole, 2008. Print.
“The Soviet Weapons Program – The Tsar Bomba.” The Nuclear Weapon Archive – A Guide to Nuclear Weapons. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. <http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/TsarBomba.html>.
“Tsar Bomba -.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba>.
