But the two parts that stood out for me as I work on my own opus are as follows:
On page 351 Krakauer writes about his first days home after the unimaginable weeks he just experienced on Everest:
The twenty-five pounds I'd lost in Nepal came back with a vengeance. The
ordinary pleasures of life at home - eating breakfast with my wife, watching the
sun go down over Puget Sound, being able to get up in the middle of the night
and walk barefoot to a warm bathroom - generated flashes of joy that bordered on
rapture.
I wouldn't say I ever felt quite like that, but there's some resemblance. Eating a home cooked meal, American style, or even eating out, looking up at the sky at night and not being able to see all those stars I could see in Timor, using the Western bathrooms - these things felt different than before. It was comforting in some cases and awful in others - the contrast was real and I couldn't decide which I preferred.
As for the second thing, well, I looked at it and realized it doesn't really fit. It had to do with Krakauer's wife's reaction to his decision to go on this trip -she stayed behind, you see. But that doesn't work for us because we both went, together.
Though it does remind me of something. I would be lying if I didn't say that joining was Bekah's idea - it was her baby. She thought of it, it was her dream. I was along for the ride. It was a ride I was thrilled to take, but in the end it was her call as to when we got off. If she had decided to leave and was sure of it I would not have stopped her.
No comments:
Post a Comment