My Cousin John
Published: Mon, 07/21/14
Doing some sorting out this past week I came across a funeral order
of service dated 5th of August 1985, so 29 years ago in a couple of
weeks. This particular funeral was for my cousin who was killed in
a road accident at the age of 24, so if he had lived he would only
be 53 now. Finding the order of service did have me thinking about
what might have been and remembering who John was. John's
family lived in Buxton and his parents still do. However John
trained as a dentist at Guy's hospital in London and had just
qualified when he was killed. While training at Guys my brother
and I saw quite a lot of our cousin. Looking back I am grateful
that we had the opportunity since, as cousins and friends, we had
all got along very well since we were young children.
Although John's life was cut short tragically early he did pack
a lot into the years he did enjoy. From an early age he had
enjoyed hill walking and climbing in the Peak District around
Buxton with his father and older brother. As he got older he took
part in some quite ambitious expeditions to mountains in quite
remote parts of the world. When my brother and I caught up with
John after one of his trips we would be fascinated by the accounts
of his adventures.
On one particular expedition John was away for several weeks and
had climbed a seriously high peak. (I am afraid I can't
remember which one and if I did it probably would not mean much to
me. Mountaineering seems to have a bit of a subculture all of its
own.) I do remember him telling me that the first two weeks of the
expedition consisted of carrying equipment and supplies from the
nearest point of road access to the base camp, several thousand
feet and just making the same climb up and down over and over again
for at least 14 days. I don't know quite how high they climbed
or how many trips per day but it was grueling and relentless and it
must have got pretty boring. But two objectives were achieved:
The equipment and materials for the attempt on the summit were in
the right place at the right time. Also those participating were
fit to attempt to reach the summit. As far as I recall John did
reach the summit and it was one of the highlights of his all too
short life.
Any really significant endeavor will have an element of tedious
preparation if it is going to be successful. Sometimes some one
else can be persuaded to do the boring stuff. A lot of expeditions
pay Sherpas or their local equivalent to carry the heavy stuff up
to base camp. That does save time and effort but it also removes
the opportunity to get fit from undertaking the mundane work of
carrying stuff up a hill. The ego will react very strongly while
the real self develops strength and stamina, the question is, which
one wins? The ego by giving up or taking the easy option or the
true self becoming genuinely stronger and more capable?
I don't know if I can really compare the Stav Centre to
climbing a mountain. But last week scraped a wall of paint, It had
layer after layer where previous tenants had not taken the trouble
to prepare before redecorating and it looked terrible. So I got
stuck in and did it. You can see pictures of the change here.
http://somersetstav.co.uk/sc.html
regards
Garham